Election Desk (Karachi): All major political party, be it the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pak Sarzameen Party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal or the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, is claiming they will sweep the elections in Karachi.
In the 2013 general elections, the MQM’s candidates returned on 17 out 20 seats in Karachi. Similar was the case in the 2015 local bodies elections.
These were times when Muttahida Qaumi Movement was the undisputed electoral champion, no one would even dare to challenge them due to the severe terror of MQM. But after August 22, 2017, when the MQM chief was declared persona non grata on account of an incendiary speech that may have well marked the end of his political grip over the city and a new branch of the real MQM i.e. MQM-Pakistan was created which is countered by the PSP – formed by former MQM leaders and headed by its dynamic former mayor Mustafa Kamal creating an open space and elimination of fear and monopoly of MQM (led by Altaf HUSSAIN) in the city. This situation gave hope to PPP, PTI, PML-N, MMA, TLP and others to openly campaign for their candidates and all hopeful to get majority in the city. The residents of Karachi will decide today which Political Party will own the city.