Impressive show reasserts PPP power in Lyari

Karachi
By all means, the Pakistan People’s Party was able to put up an impressive show of political power in Karachi on Sunday through its massive rally at the Kakri Ground in Lyari on Sunday, living up to its claim that the backward locality of the city is still a stronghold of party.
Political observers and senior journalists, who watched the proceedings of the PPP’s rally either through personal attendance or TV coverage, described it as successful.
They say that the organisers were able to fill the Kakri Ground with party activists and supporters to its full capacity.
The historical ground of Lyari is believed to have the capacity of accommodating well over 20,000 people.
Filling the Kakri ground to its capacity was a daunting challenge for the organisers given that rally was not of a national, provincial or even that of a city level, but the primarily meant to be a gathering of activists sand supporters in the South district.
It was mainly organised to attract PPP activists and supporters living in Lyari – many of them disgruntled - in a bid to woo them back into the party’s fold
However, party supporters from other areas of Karachi especially Malir, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Ibrahim Hyderi, Landhi, Korangi, Hawkesbay and Keamari also participated in the rally.
Besides, MPA Owais Muzaffar, former provincial minister and foster-brother of party chief Asif Ali Zardari, led many supporters from Thatta and Sujawal to Karachi for the rally.
Making it obvious that it was a local affair, with the exception of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, none of the national-level leaders of the party, especially those from Punjab and other provinces, was invited to address the gathering.
The list of speakers did not even include the leader of the opposition in National Assembly, Khursheed Ahmed Shah, even though he is from Sukkur.
Right after recitation of the Holy Quran and prayers for martyrs of the party, the first speaker was PPP South district president Haji Qasim Baloch, who was also the host of the event.
Other speakers included katchi abadis minster Jawed Nagori, who is an MPA from Lyari; Najmi Alam, the general secretary of the PPP Karachi division; Senator Taj Haider, the general secretary of the PPP Sindh chapter; Sherry Rehman, the vice-president of PPP-Parliamentarians; and Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.
PPP Karachi division president Abdul Qadir Patel was not there to address the rally as he has been suspended from the office for his alleged statement against the party leadership after the March 5 Senate elections.
The residents of Lyari have been unhappy with the PPP government in the province for the last few years as they feel that they have been ignored in terms of development and progress of the impoverished locality. They also say that the PPP government did not take concrete steps to end the persistent gang warfare in the area.
Under the influence of a criminal gang in the area, the residents of Lyari had largely stayed away from the last PPP public meeting in Karachi on October 18 last year at Bagh-e-Jinnah near Mazar-e-Quaid when the political career of the party’s young and novice chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was formally launched.
The elders’ committee of Lyari had demanded withdrawal of criminal cases against leadership of the People’s Amn Committee, including Uzair Jan Baloch, who currently under detention in the UAE
For wooing the residents of of Lyari, Zardari announced a Rs1 billion development package for Lyari at the rally and also said a Bilawal Bhutto Engineering College would be built in the area. He also announced that regularising contractual municipal workers in Lyari.
Besides, he said, a low-cost housing scheme would be launched Lyari in the form of residential flats.
Zardari gave three month to the chief minister for resolving the water shortage issue of Lyari.
The former president also announced that he would launch his party’s next general elections campaign from the Kakri Ground.