KARACHI: The home ground advantage wasn’t there, yet plenty of runs were put on the board as Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) came out to bat on Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) ground on Thursday.

New MQM flags fluttering from every pole on the way reminded one of one’s bearings as heavy police presence blocked several passages to Karimabad, Imran’s first stop during his rally.

At Karimabad, slogans of ‘Only Altaf Hussain’, ‘Altaf Hussain, the right man’, ‘We love Altaf Hussain’ and ‘Leader of the nation’ with old and new photos of the MQM leader greeting you with a smile, posing with or without his Ray-Bans, delivering a speech or looking skywards on hoardings all around were only confronted by two or three PTI posters with life-size pictures of Imran Khan, his arms folded and looking sideways wearing a smile that could melt a thousand hearts.

Perhaps it was those thousands of hearts that constituted the crowd following him around during the rally because at the camps set up as various stops for him hardly anyone was seen coming out of his or her home to join in the festive atmosphere with catchy songs playing in the background. The few PTI workers there waved party flags, if not out of party loyalty then to shoo away the flies or to fan themselves in the hot and sticky weather.

A few men inquired off and on about the rally whereabouts on their mobile phones in Pashto and informed the others growing slightly impatient at the delay in the party leader’s getting there. “I’m from PECHS,” a PTI worker, who introduced himself as Aman Mamu, told Dawn. “I’m half Pakhtun and half Gujarati and speak Pashto, Gujarati, Urdu and Marathi. We here are all mixed people, just like the citizens of Karachi,” he said and chuckled.

Three young women inside the camp said that they were there from Baldia; another man said he was from around new Haji Camp in Sultanabad, while another said he hailed from New Karachi. All wore casual but stylish clothes with a PTI scarf wrapped around the neck or a PTI cap to shield themselves from the sun with green and red headbands and bracelets.

Mohammad Yousuf, selling such memorabilia on a nearby footpath, said he had been making good money doing so since early that morning and before. “I make the stuff myself as I do for Aug 14 and Eid-i-Miladun Nabi every year. But the PTI things I made have given me good returns since the Islamabad sit-in,” he said.

As the music turned louder some people tired of waiting broke into dance. Many of them had covered their faces with the PTI scarves. “Hey, those could be MQM workers!” Someone suggested pointing a finger at them. “Shushh ... we are most definitely not Muttahida! But being residents of this area we feel better to not reveal our identities altogether,” said one of them.

MQM leader Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui welcoms PTI chairman Imran Khan on his arrival at the Jinnah ground.—Online

Suddenly, a commotion at the first camp revealed that Imran had changed his route and was heading first to the Jinnah ground. The handful gathered at Karimabad decided to go there.

Meanwhile, all shops on the way were closed as were the petrol stations but they opened for business the moment the rally had passed by. One cold drink store owner pushed up his shop’s shutter from inside and breathed a sigh of relief. “I decided to sit inside and wait until the storm passes,” he said.

Imran had also said that one of the reasons for his holding the rally inside the MQM bastion was to rid the people there of their fears. A couple of fuel station employees in their grey uniforms playing hooky from work even after they had removed their barricades decided to join the rally. No need to fear your employers, right, Imran?

Several people who had not joined the happy marchers watched them from footpaths at a distance. Some also watched them from their windows, balconies and rooftops. A boy then gathered the courage to walk up to the folks raising PTI slogans and ask for a green and red scarf. A car with people holding the party banners and a PTI poster on the rear windscreen gave him one. But just before Muka Chowk a few youngsters holding MQM flags started yelling their party slogans at that car. The boy with the PTI scarf quickly pocketed it and ran back to his side of the footpath.

Up ahead just outside the Jinnah ground, where Imran had just arrived, another group of MQM supporters waiting there stopped the rally from moving forward, turning it into a no-go area. A fight broke out following an exchange of angry words. But the caravan still moved ahead to turn up next at Karimabad, where Imran stopped to thank his supporters.

Regretting the incident outside the Jinnah ground, he wondered what happened to the invitation extended to him to come to this side of town by the MQM leader, and vowed not to retaliate saying his party believed in spreading peace and harmony.

Everyone, even those waiting behind pulled down shutters and those watching from windows, balconies and rooftops listened. Neither did they chant any slogans nor would they cheer or clap. There are still a few days to go before the NA 246 by-election. It still remains to be seen in front of which party symbol on the ballot paper the stamp is placed in the privacy of the booth on April 23.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2015

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