close
Thursday March 28, 2024

PSP and the Mohajir politics jinx

By Zia Ur Rehman
December 26, 2017

Notwithstanding several claims of complete disassociation with Mohajir politics since the day of its inception, it is safe to say that the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) continues being bogged down by the politics of the ethnicity.

In a manoeuvre of sorts, the PSP by holding its biggest yet public gathering in Liaquatabad, an area considered the heartland of Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan and its Mohajir politics, clearly appeared to be seeking the Urdu-speaking community’s support.

Not only that, the party’s chief, Mustafa Kamal, while addressing his audience reasserted his Mohajir origin and how proud he was to belong to the community, and also dwelled considerably upon the rights the Urdu-speaking community is owed. The narrative was also evident in the speeches of PSP’s other leaders who spoke at the event.

Accusing its arch-rival, the MQM-P, of manipulating the Mohajir community into hating other ethnicities while posing as champions of the community’s cause, Kamal said, “We will have to bury the MQM and its politics to completely rid ourselves of problems.”

The former Karachi mayor also called on the army chief to take the city’s matters into his hands so that its politics can take a new course.

‘Can’t do without Mohajir politics’

Analysts monitoring Karachi’s politics believe the PSP’s leadership has reached the conclusion that non-Muhajir politics will not get them anywhere as the MQM-P, despite its share of hurdles, has successfully managed to maintain its grip in all Mohajir-populated urban centres of Sindh.

The PSP leaders have time and again termed the politics of ethnicity as disastrous for Karachi, as well as for the MQM as it resulted in limiting the party to the city’s mere two-and-a-half districts.

It was explicitly this reason that the party tried to expand its organisational structure into areas where people of other ethnicities reside, such as Lyari, Keamari and Sohrab Goth. However, the PSP’s wooing attempts so far appear to have been cold-shouldered by the non-Urdu-speaking natives of the city.

This rebuff, analysts claim, is mainly to do with Kamal’s utter ignorance of development in these areas during his tenure as the city’s mayor.

A continuing trend

It would not be wrong to say that Karachi’s politics has to date been dominated by ethnic politics as all other parties that have ventured into the metropolis’ political affairs have been compelled to draw support from one ethnicity or the other.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf winning significant support from areas of all ethnicities, communities and classes, in the 2013 general elections was an exceptional case, as it too could not sustain its support base.

The party leaderships’ odd politics limited it to the upper-middle class localities and Pashtun majority areas of the metropolis.

Similarly, the PPP despite being a national party has only attempted to draw its support from Karachi’s Baloch and Sindhi populated areas, i.e. Lyari and Malir. The Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz has also only managed to garner votes from the city’s Punjabi and Pashtun dominated localities.

Even the MQM’s move to replace its original name from Mohajir Qaumi Movement to Muttahida Qaumi Movement in 1997 and even nominating some non-Urdu speaking members for the Senate as well as provincial and national assembly seats, could not shrug off the Mohajir politics tag.

It seems that the PSP has realised that it cannot change Karachi’s political discourse alone and has sought to reconnect with the Mohajir support base. Having previously failed at pulling crowds to its events, the PSP’s show of strength at Sunday’s rally in the same area where its opponent MQM-P organised a gathering early last month, has forced analysts to say that it has managed to make a successful entry into Mohajir politics.