Do Not Hijack The Karachi`s Mandate!

So the PTI is demanding the ECP to postpone the local body`s elections to be held on December 5, 2015 in Karachi. This demand came up following the deadly attack on Rangers in Ittehad Town (reportedly one of Taliban-controlled areas) last Friday in which four rangers` personnel got killed.  

Interestingly, for the last two weeks, some anchorpersons and analysts had been claiming that if any mishap or a major incident did not take place, MQM would easily win the Karachi`s local body`s elections. Now, question is, is the recent killings of Rangers personnel not the same “mishap” or “major incident” the media-men referred to, that might create obstacles in MQM`s way of winning the elections?

Everyone knows that the Rangers` officials had been claiming that they had successfully brought back the lights of the city through their targeted actions. Likewise, the federal as well as the provincial governments were expressing their satisfaction over the performance of the law-enforcement agencies despite the facts that the Pakistan media had been consistently reporting the incidents of target killings of policemen, traffic sergeants and other citizens in addition to other crimes. However, the killings of the Rangers personnel have exposed the reality of so-called peace in the biggest city of Pakistan.

It is also important to notice that PTI and JI, which previously had been enthusiastically propagating that the Rangers had restored peace in Karachi, are now themselves considering the same state of peace as poor in order to demanding postponement of 5 December`s elections in the city. This not only shows the hypocrisy of these parties, but also exposes their enmity for the victims of the Rangers` operation (Urdu speaking people). 

This is also on record that during the 2013`s general elections, the TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) announced to support the right wing parties including (PML-N, PTI, JI and JUI-F, JUI-S) and warned the general people of facing extremely fierce consequences if they voted for liberal parties (PPP, MQM, ANP etc). The TTP not only threatened, but also bombed the election rallies of the left wing parties for the sake of leaving a rival-free ground in the elections for their apologist groups. Dozens of people lost their lives in the terrorist attacks by Taliban. MQM became the biggest victim of their brutality in Karachi. 

The saddest aspect was that neither the state authorities (Election Commission of Pakistan, the care taker government and the military establishment) took notice of the same, nor the other political & religious parties (including PTI and JI) expressed concerns over it. As a result, there was no decision for postponing the elections in the under-attacked areas. 

Thus, the victim parties (MQM, PPP and ANP) contested the elections in the same terrorized atmosphere and also had to accept the results as there was no other option left for them. It was the worst type of pre-poll rigging ever committed in the history of Pakistan in an election which was also witnessed by the entire world with naked eyes.

Taking into account all these facts, do any of the beneficiaries of TTP`s terrorism during the last general elections deserve to make any demand for postponement of Karachi`s elections particularly when they have not yet faced any kind of hurdles that MQM did in 2013? Recently, the PTI leadership blamed PML-N of trying to run from the elections over approaching the Supreme Court after the decision of re-poll in few constituencies in Punjab. Keeping in view this, does asking for delaying Karachi`s election not indicate that PTI too is trying to run from facing MQM in the election? 

In addition, a PTI`s leader was also heard, in a talk-show, talking about a bloodshed on 5 December in the city. When we see all this in the context of Faisal Vawda`s revelation made few months ago, it definitely strengthens the MQM`s stance that the Pakistani military establishment is still trying to hand over Karachi to its patronized party by hook or by crook.  
Question is, will such a conspiracy work anyway? The recent election results of urban Sindh despite the brutal operation as well as the rapidly increasing support for a separate province especially in Karachi clearly indicate that the people will not tolerate such a thing at all. But, if the “forces” keep trying to enforce their plan, depriving an ethnic community from its fundamental rights will only weaken the country.