PTI forays into MQM stronghold as latter’s sway declines amid splits

After conducting a membership drive in different areas of the city, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf reached Azizabad on Friday to invite people to join the party and, according to its Karachi President Firdous Shamim Naqvi, adopt a “national stream political approach.”

The party put in more effort and energy at its Azizabad camp than in any other membership camp, perhaps, because it was in the stronghold of the unified Muttahida Qaumi Movement – a political force that has held sway in the metropolis for nearly three decades.

Addressing people who visited the camp, Naqvi said that it was a high time that they join PTI and “change the destiny of the nation.” “Do you still want to test the same people you have been electing for the past 30 years,” he asked, referring to the MQM which has now split into three factions as well as a different political entity – Mustafa Kamal’s Pak Sarzamen Party.

“The contractors of Karachi never gave the city its rights,” he said, vowing that the PTI will, however, ensure a bright future for it. “We should change the circumstances and start building a new Pakistan.”

Naqvi said Karachi was a melting pot of all ethnicities living in the country and criticised MQM’s method of doing politics on the Muhajir card. Commenting on the recent split in the MQM into PIB and Bahadurabad groups, he said that the manner in which PTI’s rivals have been reduced to smaller groups is unprecedented. “Everyone who had a negative agenda, wanted to divide and rule has failed,” he said.

Meanwhile, PTI Sindh Executive Vice-president Haleem Adil Shaikh said that they wanted to spread love in the city and prevent it from burning again. He also criticised the violent past of the city while it was in the control of a unified MQM, led by its self-exiled chief Altaf Hussain in London.