TLP wins two Sindh Assembly seats from Karachi

KARACHI: The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), a recently formed political organisation of radical Barelvis that highlighted the blasphemy issue across the country, has won two Sindh Assembly seats from Karachi in the 2018 general elections.

According to the unofficial results hitherto released, the TLP has managed to bag most of the votes cast in PS-115 and PS-107. The party has attracted religious voters as well as benefited from the division in the vote bank of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).

Political observers believe that the MQM-London’s call for boycotting the elections had affected the Urdu-speaking progressive vote bank in these constituencies, while the TLP mobilised its own voters to cast their ballots on the polling day to have an additional edge on the MQM-P.

PS-115 (West-IV), Baldia Town, was considered a stronghold of the MQM-P, but the TLP’s Mufti Mohammad Qasim Fakhri bagged more than 21,000 votes to win the seat, while the MQM-P’s candidate finished runner-up with over 16,000 votes.

The TLP’s Mohammad Younus Soomro secured more than 26,000 votes to win the PS-107 (South-I) seat, while Mohammad Asghar of the PTI finished runner-up with almost 16,000 votes.

Barelvi vote bank

Journalist and election observer Ali Arqam said the TLP’s victory in PS-107 and PS-115 seems logical, as both the constituencies boast of a Barelvi vote bank, which appears to have helped them win these seats.

He claimed that the people in these constituencies voted for the TLP in order to punish the MQM-P and the Pakistan Peoples Party. He said that it is not about their narrative, but the parties not paying heed to the supporters while allotting party tickets.

Media blackout

“Despite the TLP having a substantial vote bank in the city, the media has blacked out our party,” said Mufti Abid Mubarak, whom the TLP had fielded in NA-249 (West-II). He said he would challenge the result of the National Assembly constituency.

“I was the winning candidate, but the result was later changed by the ECP officials assigned to the polling stations,” he claimed, adding that Baldia Town has been the home ground of Sunni Barelvis since their involvement in politics.

MQM still rules

Political journalist Munir Ahmed Shah, however, said the MQM-P remains the dominant party in Baldia Town. The MQM had won the seat in the previous elections, but this is the first time that it has lost it.

In 1990 Muhammad Saleem Qadri had founded the Sunni Tehreek that gathered Barelvis on a single political platform. Qadri was also a resident of Saeedabad in Baldia Town.

PS situation

In PS-95 (Korangi-IV), the TLP’s Muhammad Mehboobur Rehman secured 11,643 votes to finish runner-up behind the MQM-P’s Muhammad Jawed Hanif Khan, who bagged 21,524 votes. In PS-96 (Korangi-V), the MQM-P’s Ghulam Jellani secured 19,863 votes, while the TLP’s Muhammad Abu Bakar finished runner-up with 18,962 votes. According to the unofficial results for PS-109 (South-III), the TLP’s Ahmed finished runner-up with 19,913 votes behind the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Ramzan, who led with 25,345 votes.

NA position

The unofficial results for NA-241 (Korangi-III) showed that the TLP’s Tahir Iqbal finished runner-up with 19,184 votes behind the PTI’s Faheem Khan, who led with 26,706 votes. In NA-246 (South-I), the TLP’s Ahmed finished runner-up with 42,345 votes behind the PTI’s Abdul Shakoor Shaad, who secured 52,750 votes. In NA-247 (South-II), the TLP’s Syed Zaman Ali Jaffery finished runner-up with 24,680 votes behind the PTI’s Dr Arifur Rehman Alvi, who bagged 91,020 votes to win the seat for a second time.