THIS is apropos the letter ‘Why Karachi voted for Imran’ (Aug 12). There is hardly any educated Karachiite who voted for Imran Khan, and the PTI would disagree with the writer.

Like him, I and my wife are in our mid-70s and have witnessed the political and social ups and downs and the consequent violence from time to time since the 1980s.

I believe the MQM was mainly responsible for it. Still, being an Urdu-speaking Mohajir, I and my wife decided to give MQM a chance and voted for it in the 1988 elections. But we were utterly disappointed.

We found that the MQM was not a political party; it was a gang of thugs, right from its very beginning as APMSO in 1978 (at the time we lived in the university staff town and eye-witnessed its fascism in the 1980 student union elections).

Then came the July 25 elections. We were delighted to note that Imran himself was an NA candidate from our constituency. Unfortunately, we did not know that our polling station had been changed abruptly, with no prior information.

We, despite being in our 70s, struggled for several hours, rushing from one polling station to another to locate the right polling station for us. We did so because we were determined to cast our votes. We wanted a change and no cost in terms physical exertion was too high to pay.

We believe, like so many others, that Imran Khan and, under his leadership, his party, are the last hope for this country. We do hope that he succeeds in delivering what he has been promising – a truly democratic Pakistan where common people are treated equally, not only in books of laws but also in actual practice.

Shameem Ahmad

Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2018