KARACHI: Parties pick Lyari to start election campaign
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 22: Election campaigns have been set in motion in old city areas, including Lyari Town, as workers of different political parties have started painting walls with popular slogans of their respective parties besides hoisting of party flags and banners.
Posters displaying party’s top leaders with popular slogans are also being pasted on the walls at public places. Local political leaders have started contacting their party workers and holding with them informal meetings in a bid to seek their support to get party ticket.
Though the formal announcement of polls is yet to be made, it appears as if political parties are preparing for forthcoming polls.
The dominant mood in each locality is different as far as the banners and flags competition is concerned. In Lyari, PPP’s trio-colour flags and portraits of party’s top leaders are visible in public places along with Sunni Tehrik and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The Muttahida has made its entry into the locality in the last general elections but the party could not make any significant dent in the traditional vote bank of the PPP which is dominating the electoral politics of the locality since 70s and made a history for securing its traditional seats in every election.
In the last elections, the Sunni Tehrik made some inroads in the locality and but its support is limited to small traders and shopkeepers.
The Baloch nationalist groups have yet to decide their poll strategy. Presently, they are preoccupied with Balochistan’s politics where a military operation has been launched against the Baloch nationalist forces.
Among the Sindhi nationalists, the newly formed Sindh United Party, headed by prominent Sindhi nationalist leader Jalal Mehmood Shah, held its first public meeting in Khadda area where Sindhi nationalists enjoy an effective support.
While the dominant trends in Lyari seem to be in favour of the PPP, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement appears to be equally popular in Kharadar-Mithadar and some other parts of the old city areas. In the last elections, the MQM had won over the election on the NA-249 seat which is still considered to be the strong support base of the MQM.
This constituency comprises the old city areas consisting of Kharadar, Mithadar, Boulton Market, Ranchore Lane, Nanakwara, Napier Quarters and Ramswami with a mix population of Memons, Marwaris, Ghanchis, Gujrati and Urdu speaking.
Though the PPP faced tough opposition in the last elections, it has always maintained its lead in election in Lyari with its strong base in Baghdadi and Shah Beg Lane areas, where other parties had always faced problems in hoisting their respective flags.
