PSP, ANP all set to show their strength in city today

In a move clearly aimed at exhibiting their respective political strengths in Karachi, the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have completed preparations to hold their rallies on Sunday (today) in Bagh-e-Jinnah and Landhi Industrial Area respectively.

Both political parties had faced a historic defeat in the general elections a year ago, when they failed to win even a single seat in the city.

Both parties had been organising rallies in the city days before the opposition parties’ rally on July 25 at Bagh-e-Jinnah to observe a black day on the first anniversary of the 2018 general elections.

The Pakistan Peoples Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the ANP, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan, the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and the National Party are part of the opposition parties.

‘Now or never’

The PSP is all set to hold its public meeting in Bagh-e-Jinnah, where key leaders — former city mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal and Anees Qaimkhani — will speak.

The main arteries, bridges and public places of the city were being decorated with PSP and national flags, banners with slogans and portraits of the party’s leaders, particularly Kamal and Qaimkhani, to invite people to join the PSP for a better future of the city.

PSP spokesperson Asiya Ishaq claimed that it would be a historic mammoth rally, with the theme “Now or never”, in which the party leadership would raise the city’s civic issues.

The PSP’s Central Executive Committee and National Council, besides the party’s workers and supporters, had been busy making preparations for the rally. They frequently visited parts of the city to invite people to join the rally.

A stage has been set up and the venue was being decorated with party flags and banners. Party supporters had been taking out small rallies from different parts of the city to reach the venue on a daily basis in a bid to build a momentum for Sunday’s show.

Political analysts believe that the rally is the PSP’s another attempt to present itself as an alternative to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, which had also held a “show of strength” around three months ago.

Promoting Wali

The ANP has also completed preparations for its rally against inflation at Hospital Chowrangi in Landhi Industrial Area. ANP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa President Aimal Wali, the main speaker at the rally, would be brought from the Karachi airport in a procession to the venue in the afternoon.

For the past several days in the city’s Pashtun-populated neighbourhoods, ANP workers have been busy organising meetings, carrying out motorcycle rallies, hoisting party flags and banners, and inviting residents to join the party’s rally.

However, political analysts believe that the party has been making efforts for a rousing welcome for Wali, a scion of the Bacha Khan dynasty, at the airport to promote him as a leader of national stature. On Saturday the party also released a special Pashto song on Wali’s first political visit to Karachi.