KARACHI: It is party time at the headquarters of all the political parties contesting the upcoming elections. Let’s catch the mood and atmosphere at the big offices of some of the major political parties in the city.

Bilawal House

Until sometime ago both tracks of Khayaban-i-Saadi after passing the Bilawal Chowrangi used to be closed in the name of security as Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman and former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and son Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had their home at Bilawal House. Then after several protests and pressure from taxpayers one track was opened, followed by both tracks being open now. Still, passing along the road near Bilawal House one can only spot its roof as it is hidden by tall surrounding walls.

According to Waqar Mehdi, PPP Sindh general secretary, although Bilawal House is the Karachi headquarters of the party, the actual Bilawal House is living quarters of the Bhutto-Zardari family, when they are there of course. The official work goes on near it and not inside it as they have to respect the family’s privacy.

“There is a staff there monitoring the print, electronic and social media. There are coordinators taking care of various tiers of party meetings. Delegations, too, arrive here for high-level meetings,” Mehdi informed, while adding that his own office, meanwhile, was located in the Sindh secretariat near the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam.

Giving a bit of history of Bilawal House, he said that it was built in 1988 and Benazir Bhutto moved here after getting married to Asif Zardari.

Nine Zero

Until two years ago the headquarters of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) used to be full of activity with so much hustle and bustle to listen to a certain phone call from London. There were loudspeakers and screens for the people to hear and see their leader motivating, scolding or providing instructions. None of that remains after the Rangers’ raid and operation at Nine Zero in Azizabad in 2015 and 2016.

Nine Zero got its name from its address: House no. 90/8, Block 8, Azizabad, Karachi. It was the home of MQM founder Altaf Hussain before he took exile in the UK. Just behind it was the Khursheed Begum Memorial Hall, named after Hussain’s late mother. It served as the party’s secretariat. It is from where the Rangers during their raid allegedly seized a huge quantity of arms and ammunition, and other things such as walkie-talkies, binoculars and military gear. Several arrests were also made at the time of men wanted for extortion and targeted killing.

Now after being sealed and being guarded by the Pakistan Rangers, Nine Zero is a very quiet place. And since the party broke into several factions, most of the action, albeit a little, takes place in PIB Colony where Farooq Sattar, who broke off links with Altaf Hussain to form MQM-Pakistan, lives.

PSP office

The Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) office in PECHS has dolphins everywhere as it is their party symbol for the elections. The office is a White House-style building with green roofs as the party banner also happens to be the green Pakistan flag.

The PSP office, which serves as their central secretariat, was set up in June 2016 after moving from party founder Mustafa Kamal’s house situated in DHA. At the time he had been asked by the DHA to not use his residence for party activities and press conferences as it was becoming a nuisance for his neighbours. The new headquarters, which is a two-storey house with a basement, is spread over an area of 1,000 yards. It has a hall for holding press conferences, a meeting room along with several offices for the party leaders along with a media cell. The party’s women’s wing also functions from there.

Insaf House

The Karachi headquarters of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in PECHS is known as Insaf House. These days the off-white walls of the house are covered with huge banners of the bat and pictures of the candidates contesting from Karachi. Still, the biggest panaflex banner there happens to be on its main wall sporting the picture of the most important person in the PTI, party founder Imran Khan of course. But the intense look in his eyes loses its effect due to the drooping Ashoka trees outside the brown boundary wall that are hiding most of Khan’s face.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz

According to Shaikh Javed Mir of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), contesting from PS-111, his party headquarters in Karachi is on Karsaz.

“We have our election offices all over the city from where the candidates are issuing statements and press releases and where campaigning is on full swing but the main PML-N office is at Karsaz where we have a bigger team working in our media cell and legal cell,” he said.

Mir, who heads the party’s legal cell, said that they were doing some good work there. “We receive complaints from people in need of advice or legal aid and we help them,” he said, adding that they also forwarded complaints to the IG Sindh police and DG Rangers.

JI and MMA headquarters

Surrounded by tall palm trees Idara Noor-i-Haq, the Jamaat-i-Islami and Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) main office near Islamia College in Muslimabad is a picture of activity. There are vehicles covered with big posters of candidates.

MMA is actually an alliance of five religious political parties, namely, Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Jamiat Ahle Hadith and Tehreek-i-Islami.

The parties joined hands to put up a united front as alone they were not that big when compared with some other bigger parties.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2018