KARACHI: Just two days after having agreed to a code of conduct for the forthcoming by-election in Karachi’s NA-246, workers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf clashed in one of the constituency areas on Friday evening. The situation turned violent and tense when an election camp of one party was uprooted by workers of the other after hours-long faceoff between the two sides.

“Police have detained 10 people following the clash,” Karachi West DIG Feroz Shah said. He claimed that no one was injured during the clash. “Tension arose when some people gathered at the camp office, but the situation was brought under control in the night,” he added.

“It is sheer vandalism,” said PTI leader Imran Ismail, who is also the party’s candidate for NA-246. “It’s typical, traditional politics of fear and violence. We are surprised that no one from the administration or law-enforcement agency intervened when MQM workers were pelting our workers with stones and vandalising our election camp. This is the reason which forced us to demand polling under Rangers,” he said.

The MQM’s candidate for the NA seat, Kanwar Naveed Jamil, denied the allegations and said it was not a clash between the political workers. He said his party had set up the PTI camp office when it was vandalised and after receiving information about the incident, his party immediately contacted Imran Ismail.

The hours-long episode came to an end when senior leaders of the MQM, including Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqi and Haider Abbass Rizvi, intervened and visited Karimabad traffic intersection, where the PTI camp office was set up.

MQM workers dispersed after their leaders asked them to stay calm and patient.

Published in Dawn, April 4th, 2015

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