It’s a sect eat sect world in Karachi’s LG polls

Karachi
The religious sect-based political parties in Karachi want their share of the pie in the local government polls on December 5 and formed alliances with other parties and independent groups, but with members of the same sects running against each other they might end up eating humble pie.
The sect-based parties are expecting to fetch votes in areas where members of their schools of thought are in majority.
Deobandi groups
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party (PRHP) are the major Deobandi parties in the city, contesting mainly against each other in different parts of the city.
The JUI-F is a traditional Deobandi party, which has mostly remained active in the city’s Pashtun neighbourhoods.
In the 2002 general polls, the party, under the banner of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six religious parties belonging to different sects, had won three Sindh Assembly seats in Karachi and all three of its elected parliamentarians were Pashtuns. The JUI-F had also secured many union council seats in different areas of the city in the 2005 local government polls.
However, the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) has emerged as a key Deobandi group, after Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi, now its central president, took charge of its Karachi chapter.
In the 2013 general elections, the ASWJ, which earlier operated as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and the Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan before both were banned, bagged a significant number of votes in some constituencies of Karachi, especially in PS-128 in the Malir district, where Farooqi bagged over 23,000 votes and lost to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s candidate with a thin margin.
ASWJ leaders say that they are contesting the upcoming local government polls under the electoral front of PHRP. But PHRP leaders claim that they are not affiliated with the ASWJ.
The PHRP had participated in the 2013 general polls and the 2015 local government polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Karachi, it is either fielding candidates with the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Sami (JUI-S) or the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Nazaryati (JUI-N), the JUI-F’s two splinter groups.
Ashraf Memon, the PHRP Karachi president, said his party had fielded more than 250 candidates in around 50 union committees of the city.
The PHRP has also formed alliances with liberal and religious parties including the Pakistan People’s Party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Awami National Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami at the union committee level in different parts of the city.
However, it is mainly contesting against the JUI-F in Malir and West districts. The JUI-F is in the local government elections mainly under the banner of a three-party alliance with the PPP and the ANP and kept its distance from the PHRP.
“It’s our policy not to form an alliance with banned groups and we are mainly contesting against the PHRP candidates in the city,” said a JUI-F Karachi leader.
“The JUI-F didn’t withdraw its candidate in PS-128 in favour of Farooqi in the 2013 general polls despite immense pressure from religious circles,” he added.
Analysts believe that after Farooqi’s detention by Punjab police in June and the arrest and killing of several ASWJ leaders in Karachi, the group has lost its strength in the city.
Shia groups
Two major Shia parties – the Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and the Islami Tehreek Pakistan (ITP) – are contesting the local government polls in the areas of the city where the community is in majority, but interestingly they are each other’s main rivals. The MWM, formed after the killing of Shias in Quetta and Karachi in 2012, is replacing the Allama Sajid Naqvi-led traditional Shia party, the ITP, which previously operated as the Tehreek-e-Jafria Pakistan before being banned.
Asif Safvi, the MWM Karachi spokesperson, said his party had fielded whole panels of candidates in Incholi, Soldier Bazaar, and Jaffar Tayyar Society. “In other areas, we have formed alliances with independent candidates,” he added.
Similarly, Nayyar Ali, the ITP Sindh spokesperson, said his party had fielded its candidates in seven Shia-majority union committees of the city.
“We will announce our local government plan publicly on Tuesday at a press conference,” Ali told The News. However, he added that his party would not form an alliance with the MWM.
Shia political leaders say that both parties had contested against each others in the Gilgit-Baltistan legislative assembly polls held in June and split the Shia vote bank. Consequently, the PML-N secured seats in Shia-majority areas of the region.
“In Karachi, both parties will divide the Shia votes, especially in Incholi, Soldier Bazaar, Rizvia, Abbas Town and Jaffar Tayyar Society,” said a Shia activist.
Barelvi groups
The Jamiat-e-Ulema Pakistan (JUP) is a traditional religious party representing the Barelvi school of thought.
The party had won several seats in the general elections in Karachi in the 1970s. But since then, it has lost its turf because of several reasons including the the party splitting into factions and the emergence of the MQM and later the Sunni Tehreek. Currently, the JUP is divided into two factions - one led by Allama Owais Noorani, the son of one of party’s founding members Allama Shah Ahmed Noorani, and the other by Sahibzada Abul Khair Abu Zubair, a former MNA elected in Hyderabad on the ticket of the MMA in the 2002 polls.
The two factions are separately contesting the polls in different parts of the city. The Zubair-led JUP had formed an alliance with the JI in many constituencies. In response, the Noorani-led JUP had started criticising the JI and formed alliances with other parties, especially the JUI-F and the PPP.
The Sunni Tehreek, after weakening in the city because of ongoing crackdown against criminals, has fielded its candidates in some constituencies.
Ahle Hadith groups
The Ahle Hadith groups do not participate in parliamentary politics. However, the Prof Sajid Mir-led Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadith, a key Ahle Hadith group, supports the PML-N. In return, the PML-N elected Mir as a senator.