KARACHI, Sept 30: National Assembly seat NA-256, drawn from the areas falling in the former NA-193 and NA-196 in the now defunct district East, is one of the heavily-populated suburban constituencies of Karachi where an intriguing fight is expected between once friends, now foes, in the heart of the constituency i.e. Shah Faisal Colony and in parts of Malir.

The Mohajir Qaumi Movement and Muttahida Qaumi Movement rivalry is known to everybody, and this factor will predominantly play a decisive role in determining the results of the Oct 10 elections.

Here, the number of registered voters is 245,948. Of them, 140,477 are men and 121,473 women.

Among the other parties which have been active in the area are the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the Pakistan Muslim League (N), and the Pakistan People’s Party.

However, the MQM factor is dominant on the scene, either in its Mohajir Qaumi Movement manifestation, led by Afaq Ahmed, or through the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, led by Altaf Husain, because presently, whatever electioneering is visible is mainly because of the work of the supporters and workers of the MQM Haqiqi. This time, the party is more prepared and has adopted a more aggressive posture as compared to the previous polls, as is visible form their election work.

The absence of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement from the scene in the localities forming NA-256 for over 10 years since 1992’s army operation against the Muttahida has provided the best atmosphere for the Haqiqi faction to prosper in the area, as the Muttahida has termed it a “no-go area” for them.

According to an area resident, the children of the locality who have now grown up have only seen the activities of the Haqiqi, and know little about Altaf. So there is quite a difference between the present situation and the situation 10 years ago when Muttahida traditionally used to hold sway.

As per area residents, not a single banner of Muttahida could be seen in the entire Shah Faisal Colony, Model Colony and Saudabad stronghold of Haqiqi. However, people here have a soft corner for Altaf Hussain.

In the Al-Falah area, as well as on main Sharea Faisal, Muttahida has done a lot of chalking and has displayed its symbol “kite” at prominent places. However, the elections will show the political consciousness of the area people and determine the popularity graph of Muttahida and Haqiqi, or the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.

As far as electioneering is concerned, although a couple of weeks remain till election day, the lacklustre elections have failed to generate the required heat.

The common man is disinterested in the electioneering, at a time when the world is passing through a difficult period of its history, with the Afghanistan situation, American dominance and Indian style of operations making things quite incomprehensive and resultantly posing an economic burden on the people in Pakistan, where hundreds of jobs have been abolished and traders have suffered losses.

In the given situation, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal considering the Fazlur Rehman, JUP and the JI factors, would surely make a dent in the traditional vote-bank of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement.

The MMA, PPP, PML (N) and the Tehrik-i-Insaf have done a lot of homework, and they too may give a tough fight to both MQMs if they all forge an alliance.

The constituency mainly comprises Al-Falah, Shah Faisal Colony, Model Colony, Malir Halt, Moeenabad, Drigh Road, Azimpura, Green Town, Jafar-i-Tayyar and Ammar Yasir.

The voters having sympathies for the PPP, PML factions, PPI and Tehrik-i-Insaf live in scattered pockets. In Green Town and Azimpura, the voters’ sympathies are with the Punjabi-Pakhtoon Ittehad, while in Drigh Road, there is strong support for the PPP. But there are remote chances that these parties will officially put up a consensus candidate. However, nothing can be considered final, as in politics, seat adjustments are made keeping in view the entire spectrum, and these parties would like to make inroads in the locality because of the physical absence of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and because all other parties have an easy access to the area.

The Sunni Tehrik and the PML-QA could play the role of vote spoilers. The Haqiqi faction has fielded Syed Abid Ali Jafery, the PPP’s nominee is Riaz Ahmed Mazari, MMA has fielded Mohammad Hashim Siddiqui, PML-QA has Kamran Shehzad Rana as its candidate, while seasoned religious figure Haji Hanif Tayyeb, too, is in the fray. Dr Qadeer Abbas is representing the Sunni Tehrik, while Syed Marghoob Hussain represents Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf.

Former human rights advisor to the previous PML-N government, Syed Nehal Hashmi will be representing his parent organization. The MQM has fielded Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan, a resident of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, while Haqiqi’s Saghir Ahmed lives in the same area.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement candidates have been winning the seat since the 1988 polls. Dr Nishat Malik won the previous election from the Haq Parast Group platform in 1997 by securing 36,738 votes. Abu Bakar Shaikhani of the PML secured 22,328 votes in 1993, because the MQM boycotted the NA polls. It proved a boon to PML (N)’s Abu Bakar Shaikhani who won the polls by securing 27,845 votes. Stalwarts like Syed Munawar Hasan, Mushtaq Mirza and Maulana Asad Thanvi lost the battle, while Haqiqi’s Tehsin Zafar got 912 votes.

In 1990, Islam Nabi of the Haq Parast Group secured 72,272 votes, followed by Syed Munawar Husain of IJI (21,329), Iqbal Yousuf of PDA (7,642) and Mohammad Ahmed Siddiqui of JUP Noorani (190 votes).

In the 1988 elections, Syed Mohammad Zakarya Kazmi won the seat backed by the MQM by securing 62,038 votes. Syed Munawar Hassan bagged 18,039 votes and Abdul Hameed Khanzada of the PPI secured 13,740 votes. Some stalwarts like Fatehyab Ali Khan, Aijaz Shafi, Razzaq Rajwani and Khalil Nainitalwala lost this elections.

SINDH ASSEMBLY: For the Provincial Assembly seat, there is PS-120, PS-121 and PS-119. PS-121 is bifurcated between two National Assembly seats — NA-256 and NA-257. In the previous elections, PS-100 was the main seat in Shah Faisal on which the Muttahida had an influence.