Though Sindh’s politics is dominated by the PPP in the rural heartland while the MQM calls the shots in large cities and towns, the field appears wide open for other political actors.

This is largely because the PPP and MQM have failed to establish good governance and the rule of law despite running the province or sharing power.

Hence the PTI’s rally held on Friday near Larkana was closely watched to see what Imran Khan and his party had to offer the people of Sindh.

Read| PTI against Sindh’s division: Imran

The symbolism was not lost: after having challenged the PML-N by holding demonstrations in Islamabad and across Punjab’s cities over the past three months, Mr Khan sought to confront the PPP close to its power base, keeping in mind the PTI theme of changing the ‘old order’.

The PTI managed to pull in a respectable crowd and Mr Khan made all the right political noises, saying he did not favour the division of Sindh and that the Kalabagh dam would be unacceptable unless the people of Sindh were convinced of its utility.

While the PTI managed a decent enough show in Larkana, it should remember that one rally does not a movement make, in this case in interior Sindh.

Mr Khan’s party, after all, largely ignored Sindh and Balochistan during last year’s general elections. It is a good move for the PTI to try and have a base in Sindh, though achieving success at the ballot box will be a formidable challenge.

For one, many of the leaders gravitating around the PTI in the interior are very much part of the old order Imran Khan rails against.

It is not clear whether Sindh’s voters would repose their trust in these ‘electables’, some of whom are refugees from other parties.

No doubt there is hunger for change among Sindh’s working and middle classes.

Yet no political group has been able to reach out to the province’s small farmers, labourers and other working people to address their myriad problems and come up with solid solutions.

Also read| PTI’s Larkana rally a failed political show: PPP

While the MQM has failed to move beyond its urban comfort zone (even there the party appears to be losing ground), the PPP has marked its rule with epic bad governance.

Health, education and public infrastructure are in shambles, while the state of law and order can be judged by the fact that even lawmakers are not safe from militant attacks, as was witnessed at an MQM camp in Karachi on Friday. Indeed people still vote for the PPP because the alternatives appear even more unappealing.

Sindh is yearning for change; it needs political forces that can bridge its ethnic, caste and tribal divides and speak for the greater good of the province. Either the PPP and MQM should stop taking their vote banks for granted, or new political forces could rise that speak and work for the common man in Sindh.

Published in Dawn, November 23th , 2014