KARACHI, Sept 17: A war of hoisting of flags and display of banners in streets and roundabouts has begun in some parts of Lyari Town between workers of two major parties of the province — Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The Baghdadi and the Shah Beg Lane UC areas have always been a strong support base of the PPP where opposition parties had always faced serious problems in hoisting party flags and banners in the past.
In a surprise development for the past two days, the MQM workers have started fixing their party election symbols and flags in some of the streets and roundabouts in NA-248 without any resistance.
A visit to Baghdadi and Shah Lane UCs, predominately PPP areas, shows that the MQM flags are seen flying along with the PPP in Baloch-dominated areas on Fidha Husain Shaikha Road, Bombassa Street Haji Pir Mohammad Road and in some parts of Shah Beg Lane.
On Sunday evening, the MQM workers were seen hoisting party flags and banners on Haat Chowk, a hub of commercial activity in the locality.
Commenting on the situation, a senior political worker of the area said the situation had greatly changed and it would continue to change further.
He said: “We are entering a new phase of political development wherein multi-party culture will play an important role.”
But at the same time, he argued that key parties will continue to dominate the scene for quite some time till such time old options are exhausted.
He argued that generally people are fed up with parties who have been in power in the past and they did nothing for them and they keenly desired that new faces should replace the old traditional forces.
He maintained that a similar development was also taking place in MQM-dominated areas where other parties, particularly religious groups, were making inroads.
