Pasban: new kid looks to make a mark on NA-246 political landscape

Karachi
Recently converted from an NGO to a political party, Pasban has been creating hurdles for its former ally, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), by fielding a candidate for the upcoming NA-246 by-election scheduled for April 23.
Pasban has fielded its central secretary-general, Usman Moazzam, in NA-246, a constituency comprising the areas of Azizabad, Liaquatabad and FB area from where the candidates of three political parties — the Mutahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the JI will be contesting.
“We have immense public support from the residents of the constituency, which could help us win the National Assembly seat,” claimed Pasban President Altaf Shakoor.
As an NGO, Pasban used to arrange demonstrations on a regular basis on various civic issues. Their claim to popularity has been building the longest and the biggest bat in the world during the World Cups and exhibiting it on roads of the city.
However, in the past few months, the group was running a campaign for the release of Aafia Siddique, a Pakistani scientist who was sentenced to 86 years in the prison by a US court.
However, the group announced to register itself as a political party and entered in the arena with the name of the Pasban-e-Pakistan.
In May last year, 500 active members of the group across the country participated in the ‘Pasban Leadership National Convention’ and decided to convert the group into a political party, according to Shakoor.
He said leaders of the group felt traditional parties had failed to resolve issues of the people and there was a need for a new political force in the country. “We will struggle for the basic rights of the people, strive to end corruption and bring reforms through electoral politics,” he said while talking to The News.
Participation in NA-246 by-poll is the group’s first attempt to take part in the country’s electoral politics.

Relationship with the JI
Political analysts believe that the JI leadership, especially Qazi Hussain Ahmed, felt the need to have a youth organisation, to operate as an independent organisation with a moderate outlook. “It was the JI’s initiative to establish Pasban in 1990 in order to gain popularity among apolitical people, especially the youth,” said Tariq Habib, a journalist.
A former member of Pasban, who used to be very active in politics between 1992 and 1993 and then joined the PTI, said the public perceived Pasban as more of ‘Pakistani nationalists’ than ‘Islamists’.
“Pasban celebrated the victory of Cricket World Cup 1992 by playing patriotic music, which was against the traditional JI culture at the time,” he said. “The group had also helped former cricketer Imran Khan organise fund-raising campaigns for establishment of his cancer hospital in Lahore.”
Later, said Habib, the Pasban leadership started taking decisions independently and in some cases and confronting its mother party, the JI, which compelled it to distance itself from the NGO in 1995 and form another youth organization, ‘Shabab-e-Milli’.
However, Shakoor thinks differently. “From the beginning, Pasban was an independent organisation, not a sister organisation of the JI. But it worked under the guidance of the JI leadership, especially Qazi Hussain Ahmed,” he said.

A publicity stunt
Analysts believe that fielding a candidate at NA-246 was a publicity stunt by Pasban. “They [Pasban leaders] are very skilled in getting media attention by arranging exhibiting a big Lota (toilet pot) or building the longest bat on a truck in the city and other means,” said a journalist who has been covering activities of Pasban for a number of years.
He said, its candidate, Moazzam, and supporters set an eight-foot-long replica of a TT pistol on fire on Tuesday as a symbolic eradication of violence from the city. Moazzam had filed a petition in Sindh High Court to reschedule matriculation examination in the city because they clash with the dates of the NA-246 by-election but the court dismissed the plea.
Meanwhile, interviews with the three big contestants suggest that they do not consider Pasban to be an unnecessary threat. However, Shakoor rejected the notion and said that Pasban had a support base across the city and among all communities. “We have already presented our program on how to make Karachi a city of peace,” he said.
“Karachiites would react strongly if hidden hands tried to do a match-fixing in the NA-246 by-election. The city wants a ‘change’ and not another rigged election.”