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    • After more than 40 years of fierce loyalty, Lyari votes PPP out

      Posted at 12:02 pm by ziaurrehman, on August 8, 2018

      LogoThe-News

      By Zia Ur Rehman

      July 28, 2018

      https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/347105-after-more-than-40-years-of-fierce-loyalty-lyari-votes-ppp-out

       

      As the elections results poured in, a large number of political activists and residents gathered in Baghdadi neighbourhood of Lyari on Thursday evening to enjoy the traditional Lewa dance, celebrating the defeat of Pakistan Peoples Party, especially its young chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, from its stronghold after a span of 48 years.

      Bilawal, who was contesting from NA-246, an area comprising Lyari and other Old City areas, could only manage to get the third position in the electoral race by securing 39,325 votes, while Shakoor Shad, one of PPP’s former youth leader and now a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader, won from the constituency by bagging 52,750 votes. Not surprisingly, Ahmed Bilal Saleem Qadri, a candidate of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a newly-emerged Barelvi group that has been working among various Kutchi communities of the area for many months, ranked second with 42,345 votes.

      “We were expecting these results,” said Amjad Baloch, who was watching the Lewa dance. “Especially after Lyari residents protested angrily against Bilawal’s electoral caravan on July 1, we were expecting that PPP will face a humiliating defeat this time.”

      Baloch, 45, was a staunch PPP supporter for years, but this time he voted for PTI.

      Lyari has always voted for PPP since the 1970 general elections, except in 1985 when non-party-based elections were conducted during Gen Ziaul Haq’s military regime and the party abstained from contesting. PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto won from Lyari in the 1970 and 1977 elections. Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari have also been elected from the constituency and most importantly, the couple had chosen Lyari’s Kakri Ground for their wedding ceremony.

      Although, PPP leaders are not accepting the election results from Lyari, claiming of “massive rigging”, analysts and residents said that Lyari has in fact rejected PPP.

      “Lyari has shown its loyalty to PPP since its inception but the party’s bad governance, support of criminal gangs and creation of ethnic tension in Lyari forced its residents to show their anger through the power of votes,” said Hanif Dilmurad, a journalist, who studies Lyari’s politics closely. He added that it took more than 40 years for the locality to switch its loyalty from the party.

      PTI’s Shad, who defeated Bilawal, was the former president of Sindh Peoples Youth, was also fielded in the 2008 election by PPP’s dissident workers led by former MNA Waja Karim Dad as independent candidate against the party’s candidate Nabil Gabol. But after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, they could not compete with the party at that time. Three months before the general polls, Shad joined the PTI along with his supporters.

      Factors behind PPP’s defeat

      On July 1, Bilawal’s electoral caravan came under attack by stone pelters in several parts of Lyari, and was welcomed by women holding pots shouting ‘Pani do, Pani do’ (give water, give water) and protesters chanting slogans against the party leadership for awarding a ticket to a leader who was formerly associated with Lyari’s notorious gang.

      Residents who have always voted for PPP have been criticising its performance because of its failure to address their urgent civic problems such as water shortage and unemployment, which have remained unresolved for the past several years. Lyari’s broken down roads, overflowing gutters, unauthorised apartments, unemployed youths and overflowing rubbish bins are some of the problems which the PPP leadership has been unable to address.

      Moreover, the party’s support of criminal gangs that killed hundreds of people in Lyari, mainly from the Kutchi community, and the re-awarding ticket to Javed Nagori, a former MPA who was handpicked by gang commander Uzair Baloch in the 2013 polls, are also key reasons why the locality rejected PPP this election. “The community as a whole decided to vote either PTI or TLP after the PPP’s response to the community’s July 1 protest,” Faisal Kutchi, a community leader, told The News. The party had pinned the protest on rivals claiming they were trying to sabotage PPP’s campaigning.

      The switch

      PPP has also lost its traditional two provincial assembly seats from the constituency – PS-107 and PS-108 – not to PTI but to religious parties, especially the Jamaat-e-Islami and TLP.

      From PS-107, TLP candidate Muhammad Younas Soomro won the seat by securing 26,248 votes, while PTI’s Muhammad Asghar Khan ranked second by securing 15,915 votes. PPP’s candidate Nagori bagged 14,309 votes.

      Similarly, JI’s Abdul Rasheed, who was contesting under the umbrella of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, won PS-108, defeating PPP’s candidate Abdul Majeed Baloch.

      Although progressive activists are worried about the shifting of Lyari voters toward religious parties, analyst believes that they voted for such parties in reaction to PPP’s local policies.

      According to Dilmurad, in PS-108, instead of voting for Shah Jahan Baloch, a former MNA with ties to gangs, the residents chose Rasheed, a local JI leader who has good reputation in Lyari for his welfare work, especially installing water filter plants and resolving other issues. He added that in PS-107, the Kutchi community, which suffered badly in gang violence, preferred to vote for TLP instead of PTI.

      Posted in Published in, The News | 0 Comments | Tagged Election 2018, Lyari, PPP
    • Lyari’s disgruntled voters wary of PPP’s performance, nominated candidates

      Posted at 11:23 am by ziaurrehman, on July 6, 2018

      LogoThe-News

      By Zia Ur Rehman

      July 4, 2018

      https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/337197-lyari-s-disgruntled-voters-wary-of-ppp-s-performance-nominated-candidates

      Lyari’s Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Road was the centre of media attention on Sunday when the electoral caravan of the Pakistan Peoples Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari came under attack by stone pelters, and was welcomed by women holding pots shouting ‘Pani do, Pani do’ (give water, give water) and protesters chanting slogans against the party leadership for awarding ticket to a leader who was formerly associated with Lyari’s notorious gang.

      The PPP leaders, however, claimed miscreants were behind the incident and that thousands of party supporters in Lyari greeted Bilawal and showered him with rose petals. Advising the media not to report the incident as an act of public agitation, PPP Karachi President Saeed Ghani on Monday said the masses possess the most powerful weapon in the form of their vote and they had every right to show their resentment against any political party by not casting votes in its favour.

      However, local analysts and community leaders believe that the Sunday incident was an eye-opener for the PPP not only to resolve the party’s inner fissures but also to address the local grievances of the residents of the neighbourhood, from where the party has won every election since its inception. Bilawal’s mother, Benazir Bhutto, and father, Asif Ali Zardari, have also won from the constituency in the past.

      Genuine grievances

      Lyari residents who have always voted for the PPP are now criticising its performance because of its failure to address their urgent civic problems such as water shortage and unemployment, which have remained unresolved for the past several years. Lyari’s broken down roads, overflowing gutters, unauthorised apartments, unemployed youths and sprawling rubbish bins are some of the problems which the PPP leadership has been unable to address.

      “Stop calling us conspirators, pro-gangs or pro-Muttahida Qaumi Movement. We are traditional supporters and protested just to show our anger over the failure to resolve our civic issues, especially the non-provision of water,” Dawood Kutchi, a 53-year-old resident of Bhittai Road and a leader of the disgruntled Kutchi community, said in response to party leaders’ statements regarding the incident.

      According to Nida Kirmani, a researcher working on Lyari for the past several years, there are genuine grievances among a large section of residents. “Lyari’s residents believe that the protest has created the sense in the PPP that the people of Lyari are not happy with how it handled the area, especially the case of the creations of gang war and supporting the Peoples Amn Committee, in the past several years,” Kirmani told The News. “Let’s see what happens in the election. People often go back to their habit of voting for the PPP.”

      Although Lyari residents are suspicious of other parties, at the same time, they have genuine grievances that were behind the attack on the convoy on Sunday, she said.

      Kutchi community

      Although the PPP is in a position to get its chairperson Bilawal elected from NA-246, which comprises Lyari and some parts of old city area – mainly because of the absence of a strong opposition group, the party has been facing a great challenge in the two provincial assembly seats – PS-107 and PS-108 falling in the constituency.

      In PS-107, the PPP traditionally nominates a Kutchi leader from the constituency which is home to various communities, such as Hingoros, Sonaras and Soomro. In the past, Ali Ahmed Hingoro and Saleem Hingoro have been elected from the constituency. However, after the rise of gangs in Lyari in 2009, gangsters extorted money from Kutchi businessmen and harassed the overall community in the region.

      Kutchi community leaders blamed the PPP leadership, especially the then home minister Zulfiqar Mirza, who helped the gangs morph into the Peoples Amn Committee, an alliance of most of the gangs, and used them for their own political benefits, especially countering the MQM in the old city areas.

      To protect the community from the gangsters, various Kutchi jammats formed the Kutchi Rabita Committee in 2009. This worsened the situation and the PAC’s gangsters started harassing ordinary Kutchis. In July 2011, the conflict forced over 1,000 Kutchi families to flee their homes in Lyari and shift to other Kutchi-populated neighbourhoods of the city as well as Badin and Thatta districts.

      The residents of Lyari still shudder when they recall the days when gangsters were attacking the homes and shops of Kutchis in the area with rocket launchers, automatic rifles and grenades. According to the community leaders, since 2009, over 400 Kutchis, including women and children, have been killed by the gangsters.

      Satisfied with the Rangers-led operation, the Kutchi community diminished the importance of the KRC, which reflected in December 2015 local government polls.

      This year, the community has reacted strongly to the party’s decision to award a ticket for PS-107 to party leader Javed Nagori. In the 2008 general polls, the PAC chief Uzair Baloch had picked up Nagori, Sania Naz and Shah Jahan for the Lyari’s national and two provincial assembly seats and they were ultimately given a PPP ticket. “We did not forget the killings of our loved ones,” said Musa Soomro, another Kutchi leader “We will not accept him [Nagori].”

      He said that his community has been waiting for the PPP’s response and if it is not satisfactory, the community will either support the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan in the upcoming polls.

      There are also concerns over the registering of cases under terrorism law against 400 protesters for attacking Bilawal’s motorcade. Although the PPP leaders distanced itself from the case, the community believes that the party will use the cases against its political opponents.

      Lyari Panel

      A number of Baloch leaders and the party’s elected representativeness in PS-108, another Lyari provincial constituency, have also shown their concerns about the awarding of a ticket to Abdul Majeed, who does not belong to the constituency, and have formed an independent ‘Lyari Panel’.

      They have fielded former MNA Shah Jahan and UC vice-chairman Habib Hasan from both provincial constituencies against the PPP’s nominated candidates. “The PPP only used Lyari’s Baloch merely for dancing on its song “Dilla Teera Baja” and exploited them as muscle in its proxy war with the MQM in the past,” said Amjad Hout, a PPP activist in Chakiwara. “We will resist and vote for our own candidates.”

      End

       

       

      Posted in Published in, The News | 0 Comments | Tagged Election 2018, Karachi, Lyari, Lyari gangs
    • Peace in Lyari – here today, gone tomorrow

      Posted at 1:57 pm by ziaurrehman, on March 11, 2016

      The-News-International-Logo1

      By Zia Ur Rehman

      March 9, 2016

      http://thenews.com.pk/print/103984-P

      Incapable of maintaining their hegemony following the Rangers-led operation, gangsters now targeting area’s political and social activists

      Karachi: With nominal peace having been restored in Lyari following the Rangers-led operation against warring gangs, otherwise operating with impunity, residents of the area were, however, still wary of incidents of targeted killing of political and civil society activists and the government’s failure to apprehend the killers.

      l_103984_052542_print

      Mir Ishtiaq Baloch, a local leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was gunned down by unidentified men on January 17 outside his office located at Ahmed Shah Bukhari road in Lyari – lying within the jurisdiction of the Baghdadi police station.

      The 32-year-old was popularly known as Mullah Pappu in the area and had contested local bodies’ poll for the post of chairman from UC-8 on the PML-N’s ticket; he, however, lost by only 40 votes.

      He was the younger brother of a central leader of the PML-N, Mir Ashfaq Baloch.

      Interviews with local residents and police suggest that a local gang leader by the name of Gulabo, associated with the area’s bigwigs Ghaffar Zikri and Baba Ladla, was behind Ishtiaq’s killing.

      They believe that he was killed for the sole purpose of instilling fear of the gangs among the area’s residents.

      “The operation against gangsters has no doubt brought peace to Lyari and the locals having witnessed years of bloodshed were confident that violence was finally coming to an end,” claimed Lala Fateh Nazar, a social activist in Lyari.

      However, Nazar added, that the gang’s commanders after being left weakened because of the operation, took to targeting political and social figures who were at the forefront in supporting the law enforcement agencies’ crackdown.

      “Ishtiaq was vocal in condemning the atrocities of the gangs and had also announced to organise a peace rally before he was murdered,” informed a school teacher of the area. The rally was to send out a message to the entire city that Lyari was no more a no-go area, he added.

      According to Ashfaq, the government was not interested in arresting the culprits involved in killing his brother.

      He got an FIR registered at the Baghdadi police station against Gulabo, and soon after a number of gangsters associated with Gulabo resorted to aerial firing in the street where Ashfaq resides.

      “Over two months have passed since the murder of my brother but nobody has been arrested so far. And the failure of law enforcement agencies’ to arrest the killers has whipped up fear among the local political and social activists of the area,” added a disgruntled Ashfaq.

      “Incidents of attacking and threatening social and political activists in recent months show that violence has resurfaced in Lyari,” said another civil society activist, who recently moved to Gizri area owing to security concerns.

      SP Lyari, Aftab Nizamani, while commenting over Ishtiaq’s murder said police were trying to arrest Gulabo, who, he claimed, went underground all the while the operating was being conducted.

      “He narrowly escaped three raids conducted by the police,” the SP claimed.

      A number of locals still believed that the gangs were not in a position to regain their lost strength but would continue assert their presence through carrying out targeted attacks.

      Posted in Published in, The News | 0 Comments | Tagged Lyari, Lyari operation
    • In ‘sensitive’ UC-7 of Lyari, a female candidate shines

      Posted at 1:08 am by ziaurrehman, on December 3, 2015

      The-News-International-Logo1

      Zia Ur Rehman
      Wednesday, November 25, 2015
      http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-353303-In-sensitive-UC-7-of-Lyari-a-female-candidate-shines

      Karachi

      With dozens of her supporters, both men and women, young and elderly, Hafeeza Noor led her electoral rally on Sunday along the narrow streets of Shah Baig Lane and Baghdadi areas of Lyari.

      Noor, aged around 50, is running for the post of the vice chairperson in the local government polls on a Pakistan People’s Party ticket in Lyari’s UC-7, one of the more “sensitive” union committees of the city.

      12308581_10207604298927557_4699114155377560501_n.jpg

      “I am thankful to the party leadership, especially the area’s office-bearers who recommended my name for the post,” Noor told The News at her election office in Shah Baig Lane.

      Associated with the PPP since its inception, Noor and her family have remained active in the politics of the city, especially in Lyari.

      During Nawaz Sharif’s first government in 1992, Noor and other PPP leaders were imprisoned in Adiala Jail for participating in an anti-government long march. She spent 18 days in jail.

      She is currently the finance secretary of the PPP Karachi women wing and has also remained a city council member in 2001 on a reserved seat for women.

      Noor said her nomination for the slot of the vice chairperson showed that the party had changed politically over the years. In the past, she added, top leaders were chosen as candidates in Lyari.

      “As an old guard and a woman, the party preferred me rather than many male aspirants for the position,” she said.

      The PPP has given the ticket for the chairperson slot to Lala Aashiq Ali, a former footballer.

      Noor said her biggest inspiration were Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto. “Both Bhuttos had dreamt of women’s participation in mainstream politics and today my nomination shows that the party still adheres to their policies,” she added.

      Before Noor, the PPP leadership had fielded the then 26-year-old Saniya Naz for a provincial assembly seat in Lyari during the general election of 2013. The residents of Lyari had elected her as their MPA.

      At Noor’s office, dozens of women and men were sitting around her.

      Hanifa Laal Muhammad, an elderly PPP supporter, said not only the party’s female activists but all women in the area were happy over the allotment of ticket to Noor. “Dozens of women, along with Noor, participate in corner meetings and participate in door-to-door canvassing in the streets of Shah Baig Lane and Baghdadi,” she added.

      Analysts believe that Noor will easily win the election as the neighbourhood is a PPP stronghold.

      Around 80 percent of the constituency comprises Baloch residents. The rest belong to Kutchi and Hindu communities.

      Iqbal Baloch, the PPP South district deputy information secretary, said rival groups were spreading baseless rumours that the PPP could not find candidates in Lyari.

      “In UC-7, which comprises Shah Baig Lane and Baghdadi areas and is considered a ‘most-sensitive’ union committee, we have fielded a female candidate,” he added. “It’s enough to dispel such rumours.”

      End

      Posted in The News | 0 Comments | Tagged Hafeeza Noor, Karachi LG polls, Lyari, Shah Baig Lane, women candidates in LG polls
    • Bio

      Zia Ur Rehman is an award-winning journalist and researcher and has been working as a senior reporter with The News International, one of the Pakistan’s leading English newspapers. He has also been writing for New York Times.

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