All political parties have criticised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’s (PTI) decision to field candidates at all national and provincial assembly seats of Karachi, making PTI the party with the highest number of candidates contesting the general elections.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which consider themselves a threat for each other in the upcoming elections, claim that they are not even considering PTI while chalking out strategies.
There are 20 national assembly and 42 provincial assembly seats in Karachi, and apart from MQM, PTI is the only party to have fielded candidates in all constituencies of the city. Critics are of the view that MQM has much stronger roots in Karachi than PTI does, hence fielding candidates at all seat is mere ‘stupidity’.
“JI, which is the only contender of MQM and has always succeeded in winning a considerable number of seats from Karachi, has fielded candidates at 12 national assembly and 21 provincial assembly seats,” a MQM leader said.
“If any party feels that it has support among the masses, it is its constitutional right to contest elections from any constituency. But as far as PTI is concerned, it has no support in the city at all,” JI Sindh President Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui told Pakistan Today.
“We are holding review meetings to monitor the election situation in Karachi where we evaluate the campaign of every political party in the city. However, we have no report of PTI’s election campaign in the metropolis,” Dr Huda added. “I haven’t met any PTI candidate so far; there is not even a single banner or poster of the contesting candidates in the city,” Dr Huda maintained.
“PTI is non-existent in Karachi and is a threat to no party,” Dr Huda said, adding that MQM is the only party which can compete with JI.
“I am still searching for the PTI candidate who is contesting elections against me in PS-99,” MQM leader Khawaja Izhar-ul Hassan told Pakistan Today.
“PTI is not campaigning at all in Karachi, and their candidates are nowhere to be seen. How they can be threat for MQM,” Hassan said.
Talking to Pakistan Today, PTI Spokesman Jamal Siddiqui said, “We are out on the streets, trying to build a new Pakistan. We want to bring a revolution in the political system and so have decided not to hold public gatherings like others political parties of the city do,” PTI Spokesman Jamal Siddiqui told Pakistan Today.
“We have started a door-to-door campaign and our nominated candidates are approaching people in their houses. We want people to come out of their houses and join us in our endeavour to bring a revolution in this country,” Siddiqui added.