KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement chief Altaf Hussain said on Sunday that the victory of the MQM candidate in the re-polling on a provincial assembly seat in Karachi was actually the defeat of extremist thinking.

MQM’s Waqar Shah won the PS-128 constituency against Muttahida Deeni Mahaz candidate Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi, who is a leader of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, in the re-polling held on Saturday in six polling stations.

According to a statement issued on Sunday, the MQM chief said this while speaking to members of the party’s coordination committee and others over telephone from London.

He said the MQM had emerged victorious from a constituency where Urdu-speaking people were in minority.

“The confidence shown in the MQM by the people of different ethnicities is actually the defeat of the extremist thinking under which any people could be declared infidel on the basis of their faith and ideology,” he added.

He said that people living in Quaidabad, Dawood Chowrangi, Tohidabad and other areas of the constituency had voted against the extremist thinking.

“This is not a victory on one seat…this is the defeat of all extremists and those trying to spread their extremist thoughts in the whole country.”

He congratulated the winning candidate, Waqar Shah, and paid tribute to all people residing in the constituency.

Earlier, addressing the workers gathered at the party’s Nine Zero headquarters on Saturday night to celebrate the MQM’s victory, Mr Hussain said Karachi was mini-Pakistan and he had never claimed that it was the city of Urdu-speaking people only.

He said the MQM was the representative party of the mini-Pakistan and people of all ethnic backgrounds should support it to strengthen the city and the country.

Mr Hussain said the MQM respected the mandate of all parties.