Smokers’ Corner: The slippery constituency
Karachi is one of the largest cities in the world. It was once called the ‘city of lights’, due to its bustling and lively night life driven by nightclubs, cinemas, bars, eating places and other recreational outlets until many of these were closed down in 1977.
Nevertheless, Karachi still remains to be a nocturnal abode. Many of its famous symbols of nightlife may have been forced to close down thirty years ago, the pleasures that they once offered are still very much available under-the-table and largely tolerated.
Karachi is also the most diverse city in the country. Its large population is dotted by a number of different ethnicities, religions, Muslim sects and sub-sects.
The largest ethnic group here is made up of Urdu-speakers (Mohajirs), who constitute about 43per cent of the city’s population. The mohajirs also include Gujrati-speakers (Memons).
The second largest ethnic group in Karachi is made up of the Pashtuns (now 18 to 20per cent). The Punjabis and Siraiki speakers together constitute about 19 per cent of the city’s population, followed by the Baloch and Sindhis.
More than 90per cent of Karachiites are Muslim. Most of them belong to the Barelvi Sunni Muslim sub-sect but there is now also a significant number (especially among the Pashtun) who identify with the conservative Deobandi Sunni Muslim sub-sect.
Karachi also has a large Shia Muslim population. Then there is a concentration of both Catholic and Protestant Christians; Bohri and Agha Khani Muslim sects, some Hindus as well as an influential concentration of Zoroastrians.
Karachi also hosts the largest number of immigrant population in Pakistan. These include Bengalis, Burmese, Afghans and a sprinkling of Philippinos, Sri-Lankans and Iranians.
The electoral constituency which best reflects this stunning ethnic, Muslim and religious diversity in Karachi is NA-250. It is not only the largest in Karachi, but one of the largest in Sindh as well.
It is due to this reason that this constituency has been throwing up some of the most interesting results.
Of course, it was not always so massive, but the diverse make-up of its voting population has remained more or less the same.
NA-250 constitutes the city’s leading posh localities, as well as some thickly populated middle and working-class areas.
All of these localities are dotted by hefty pockets of Mohajir, Pashtun, Baloch, Punjabi and Sindhi populations.
Ever since 1988, Karachi’s voters have overwhelmingly voted for ‘secular’ parties, mainly the MQM, followed by the PPP and (after the 2008 election), the ANP.
NA-250 however, has remained to be the trickiest and most uncertain electoral battlegrounds for the competing parties.
During the 1970 election many of the areas that are now within NA-250 came under NW-134 (Karachi VII).
As the majority of voters in the former West Pakistan voted for left-leaning parties such as the PPP and the National Awami Party, voters in the Karachi-7 constituency returned Shah Noorani, chief of the Barelvi Islamic party, the JUP to the National Assembly. Noorani garnered 28,304 votes followed by the PPP’s Noorul Arfin who bagged 22,609 votes.
In the 1977 election, the constituency was further expanded and became NA-191. It was won by Munawar Hassan of Jamat-i-Islami (JI) who got 73,997 votes beating the PPP’s Jamiluddin Aali who managed 33,086 votes.
Karachi’s demography and consequently its politics began to change rapidly during the Ziaul Haq dictatorship between 1977 and 1988.
With the arrival of a large number of Afghans from the war-torn Afghanistan the number of Pashtuns in Karachi grew.
The rising population of the city triggered ethnic and sectarian tensions and this resulted in the rise of the mohajir-centric MQM as a powerful secular-ethnic political force.
In the 1988 election, NA-191 was won by MQM’s Tariq Mehmood who received 36,746 votes. He had to fight hard against Sarwar Malik who was representing the constituency’s Punjabi and Pashtun populations under the Punjabi Pashtun Ittihad (PPI) umbrella. He received 28,145 votes.
The NA elections in 1993 were boycotted by the MQM. In these elections, NA-191 went to the non-religious conservative PML-N’s Abu Bakar who received 27,845 votes followed by the Islamic JI’s Munawar Hassan who could only garner 8,550 votes.
In the 1997 election, whereas most of the NA seats in Karachi were being won by the MQM, NA-191 however produced an upset win for PML-N’s Capt. Haleem who won the seat with 31,414 votes. His closest rival was MQM’s Abdul Jalil who received 25,008 votes.
During the 2002 election, with the increase in the number of seats in the National Assembly , NA-191 became NA-250. Once again this constituency voted against the tide by returning veteran JI member, Sattar Afghani, to the NA with 21,462 votes. His closest rival was MQM’s Nasreen Jalil who received 19,414 votes.
The constituency witnessed perhaps its toughest electoral battle during the 2008 election.
MQM’s Khushbakht Shujaat defeated PPP’s Dr. Ikhtiar Baig in a close and tense fight. Shujaat received 52,045 votes and Baig stood second with 44,412 votes.
NA-250 remains to be a wide-open and uncertain constituency. Recently Karachi’s largest party the MQM has been canvassing aggressively here, setting up various campaigns and offices.
But this time its main battle here is not expected to come from a PPP candidate. Because the other party that is seen trying to make use of this constituency’s eccentric electoral nature is Imran Khan’s PTI. It understands that NA-250 is the only constituency in Karachi that can produce a winner not associated with either the MQM or the PPP.
There is every likelihood that the main contest in NA-250 in the 2013 election will between the MQM and PTI. But PML-N also has a vote bank here and might spoil PTI’s ambitions. My prediction is that MQM, with the help of votes from disillusioned PPP voters in the constituency’s well-to-do and middle-class areas is poised to retain this seat.
murder and mayhem will continue if people vote on ethnic grounds, in order for the lights to be put back on, merit should be the criteria not ethnic background or family name.
Nadeem, I like the way you remind us of Karachi of past of “bustling and lively night life driven by nightclubs, cinemas, bars, eating places and other recreational outlets until many of these were closed down in 1977″. There is a bit of provocational sarcasm which is welcome.
Karachi, IMHO, will be the bell weather city for the future of Pakistan. A diverse port city like Karachi should, by all accounts, be a hub for creativity, and commerce (like HK, London, NYC and Mumbai). Or, it can spin out of control like Lebanon.
Where it goes from here is completely up to the middle class in Karachi, not the politicians who will ALWAYS be venal and rapacious. I hope/pray Karachi sees it true potential.
The only problem with PTI is that they might not be able to provide security to their voters. I have a fear that MQM might threaten people.
According to following wiki details, at the time of partition Karachi’s Population was around 450,000. By 1951, due to Muslim immigrants’ arrival it swelled to somewhere a million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Karachi
1- The number of the Muslim immigrants from different parts of India who had arrived and settled in Karachi was around 550,000.
2- Today’s estimates (depending who is conducting) of Karachi’s population comes between, 15 to 20 millions.
Question that come to mind:
While bulk of the migration from India to Karachi occurred in 1947, influx of people from different parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and to some extent from other countries continues till today. How is it logically possible that Mohajir population now stands over 40 % and by some estimates close to 50%?
“Spoil PTI’s ambitions” you got to be kidding me Mr Writer…………… PTI will definitely dent MQM this time and that is the reason MQM scared for and feeling a pinch.
an informative picture surrounding NA-250!…. my guess is if every ‘burger bacha’ votes from defence and clifton, NA-250 will definately be PTI’s… the only question is who is going to wake up all the ‘burger bachas’ to go and vote?
Before Partition Karachi was the most urbane and advanced city in united India. Karachi was majority Hindu, Sindhi Hindus. Sindh had about 40-45% Hindus, mostly Sindhis. Prepartition Bombay, now called Mumbai was behind both Kolkota(Calcutta) and Karachi. After India was divided into a Muslim Pakistan and a non-Muslim India the Sindhi Hindus fled from Karachi and Sindh and settled mainly in Mumbai. They prospered again in a very short times. So you draw your conclusion as to why Karachi is what it is today. I know the answer as I post this message from the house in Mumbai that my great-grandfather, a Sindhi Hindu, built after he fled Pakistan along with his parents and wife and children and siblings, from a land that had been inhabited by his ancestors for thousands of years even before bin Qasim invaded Sindh.
I think your ancestors were cowards who left Pakistan,instead of staying there and fighting for their survival like Muslims in India.
Your generation in Pakistan (the one that uses the internet, as you are doing) has a golden opportunity to shake off the prejudice and ignorance brought about by Pakistani govt propaganda about other nations and cultures, and the fake history taught to you over you entire school life, simply because you have this huge treasure-trove of information of the internet at your fingertips.
Sadly, as your comment shows, at least among the Pakistani educated elite, this remains only a pipe dream, yet.
@Sunder Advani – that is a very simplistic conclusion you are asking is to draw. Karachi still is the commercial hub of Pakistan. You have overlooked the fact that Pakistan was racing with the Asian Tigers in economy during the 50s and 60s and that bouts of dictatorships and a never-ending Afghan conflict has reengineered the Pakistani society. What afflicts the entire Pakistan afflicts the city of Karachi and has little to do with the fact that Sindhi Hindus went to India. Karachi has its own business community.
I thought Lahore was the cultural capital of Pakistan pre partition.
Each Pakistani / Indian muslim I have met has a fascinating story of his/her family’s origin in West/Central Asia, Arab Peninsula or Persia. Will NFP please investigate why these ‘foreign originated’ ethnic groups are fighting on their Indian-subcontinent identities lines ?
South Asian Muslims are the only Muslims who pretend to be what they are not, they pretend they are Arabs with no trace of Indian/Hindu blood in them. Indonesians, Malaysians, Egyptians, Moroccans do not try to deny their pre-Islamic past and culture. But at the same time our culture is no different then Indians and we love Indian movies. This dichotomy in our brains is perhaps the main reason why at the drop of hat we riot and kill.
How do these foreign fighters enter Pakistan? Are there no border checks?
First Non-MQM or non PPP biased article from NFP
I remember NFP began his journalistic career as a political reporter in the early 1990s. Here he has switched to become that. Brilliantly done. He remains to be the journo who knows Karachi inside out.
I wish one of the online editors could put a google maps image outlining NA-250. Getting a visual on this would be even more enlightening
defense and area of clifton comes in NA50
May Allah accept our prayers and your prediction in the last para turns out to be true. Ameen.
ok
All politics is local. Stealing is international.
Is that why you are always stealing international quotations?
and my prediction is that PTI sill clean sweep.
PTI, who?
Can this review be expanded to include other NA constituencies?
Karachi is not a melting pot like the US, but a mosaic like in Canada.
Different communities live in their own ghettos, a sure recipe for disaster as Canada is, ethnically and linguistically speaking.
Get out of disastrous Canada fast brother so you can embrace Islam not only with your soul but also with your body.
Really, which Canada do you live in?? You are full of opinions no facts supporting.
nice commentary.