Some senior PML-N leaders have advised the party to focus more on urban Sindh instead of its interior part in an attempt to create a constituency for the party in future elections, especially the upcoming local bodies’ polls, and to counter the growing advances of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf.
The leaguers have told the top leadership that there was no use to concentrate on interior Sindh, opining that given the PPP’s hold there, it would not be possible for the PML-N to make headway into PPP’s turf.
It is believed that alliance with Sindhi nationalists or the 10-party alliance to counter the PPP in the last election hardly brought any dividend for the ruling party. Based upon the outcome, the PML-N is ready to deploy more of its resources in urban Sindh for the upcoming local bodies’ polls.
The appointment of Mamnoon Hussain as president is also part of that strategy. Hussain is an Urdu-speaking PML-N leader with deep roots in the politics of Karachi. He is a well-known figure in the Karachi’s business circle and it is being hoped that his presence in the Presidency would be a boon for the party as far as Karachi and other parts of urban Sindh are concerned.
The PML-N is also watching the PTI carefully. It has made a lot of advancement in Karachi and KP politically. As such, the PML-N believes that instead of focusing elsewhere, it should spent more energy in urban Sindh and KP for better results in countering the PTI.
Sources in the PML-N were not very positive about the prospects of making any long-term political alliance with the MQM, especially with the party now looking to create a place of its own in cities like Karachi and Hyderabad.
Political analysts say if the strategy was to capitalise on the vote bank in Karachi at the expense of other stakeholders, both the PML-N and MQM would soon be on a collision course.
There is a strong lobby in the party that is against any political alliance with the MQM. Even the PML-N’s partners in Sindh are not happy over the party’s recent embracing of MQM for support in the presidential elections.