Musharraf to address Nishtar Park rally by video link on May 13

The Pakistan Awami Ittehad, led by former president General (retired) Pervez Mushrraf, is set to hold its first public meeting on May 13 at Nishtar Park after the authorities granted permission on Thursday, a spokesperson for the alliance said.

Karachi is likely to witness three public gatherings on Sunday – one each by the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen and the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement.

Musharraf, who is living abroad, is leading an alliance of mostly religio-political and center-right parties, including the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek, the Pakistan Muslim League-J, the Pakistan Muslim Alliance and the Awami League.

The former president would address the public meeting through video link, said APML information secretary Muhammad Ali Sherwani. He asserted that the gathering was likely to define their alliance’s public power.

In the political vacuum surfacing in Karachi, the APML is trying to pull together likeminded political parties and Musharraf’s former allies like the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to make a considerable move, primarily countering the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Addressing a public meeting of the APML at the Liaquatabad flyover on January 7, the former president had asked the MQM-P and the PSP to join hands with him to form a political force against the PPP in Sindh.

He had announced that his party would take part in the 2018 elections from Karachi, proposing another alliance in the city’s political scene after the failed MQM-Pakistan-PSP merger.

He had said: “Currently, there is no such political party in Sindh that could defeat the PPP. However, if an alliance is made [among the Karachi-centric political parties and some groups in other parts of Sindh], then it could happen.”

He had said that he eyed the MQM-P, the PSP and his APML equally, and if an alliance was made among them, they would emerge as a stronger force and could make the next government in the province. “We cannot do anything if we are not in power,” he had said.