KARACHI: It was all about Pakistan and its people at Mustafa Kamal’s first public rally as leader of the one-month-old Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) on Sunday. There was a visible diversity among the group of people present at the venue. From labourers to housewives, the old and the young, the venue was sparsely filled in the afternoon, but a huge crowd had joined in by 5pm as families and women started filling in the seats.

As songs lauding the brave leaders of the Pakistan Movement and the Pakistan Army blared in the background, a group of labourers made their way towards the Bagh-i-Jinnah ground opposite Quaid-i-Azam’s mausoleum in the afternoon. The first ones to reach the venue in the sweltering afternoon heat were six men.

Among them, Mohammad Sabir, in broken Urdu said that they had come from Tariq Road and originally hailed from Mansehra. “We were told by our contractor to reach the venue by 2:30pm. There are others on the way, too,” he said. There were other similar groups of men from various ethnicities such as Sindhis and Balochi speaking from Karachi’s South as well as Dera Bugti.

Sitting in the front row, Mir Wali Mohammad, a former member of the MQM from Dera Bugti’s PP-24 constituency, was accompanied by his relatives. Speaking about the PSP, he said: “He (Kamal) speaks about Pakistan and of serving the people irrespective of caste and ethnicity. That’s why I decided to be a part of his team. I’d want to contest on PSP’s ticket, if he (Kamal) chooses to contest the general elections of 2018.”

In the adjacent row of seats for women, Naureen Fayyaz, a resident of Liaquatabad number 8, was sitting right next to a family hailing from Hunza. She rejected reports of a fight that broke out earlier in the afternoon in some streets of Liaquatabad 5 and 8. “There was no obvious conflict. But yes, people are being careful while leaving for the rally. You won’t notice any buses coming from our area but women coming with children are to be later joined by their husbands,” she added.

In a marquee set up on the right of the stage, a PSP volunteer said that a large number of people were coming from Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah, Tando Allah Yar, Tando Jam, Kundri, Umerkot, Naukot, Somaro (city) and Sukkur, whereas, without giving an estimate, the volunteer added that a group of people would join them from Layyah and Multan as well.

Sitting at the back of the marquee, former deputy convener of the MQM and now a senior leader of the PSP Anis Qaimkhani said they were expecting 100,000 to 500,000 people. “There’s no doubt that we are supported not only in Karachi but in the rest of the country as well,” he said.

By 4pm, an announcement was made by another leader of the PSP, Raza Haroon, asking people to clear the way for police personnel “so they can give a security clearance”.

Sitting with her cousins in the front row, a housewife named Farah Nazeer from Gulistan-i-Jauhar said it was still too early to expect so much from Kamal’s party. “We have yet to see what he brings to the table. I remember being equally excited about the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) but they somehow didn’t do what we expected of them,” she said.

When asked what issues they felt must be addressed by the PSP, most of the people seated at the venue spoke about “maintaining peace” followed by addressing the shortage of electricity, water and poor drainage system plaguing the city.

Comparing the two political parties, the MQM for which he voted and the PSP whose team he recently joined, Noor Mohammad, who had come from Baldia Town, said: “Mustafa Kamal did a lot for the city as MQM’s mayor and I don’t doubt his abilities. He has what it takes to turn around the situation and ridding Karachi of target killers.”

The media too was out in full force at the venue along with drone cameras.

At Maghrib prayer time a group of men, women and children holding placards with pictures of Aafia Siddiqui also arrived there. As they argued with the security personnel to be allowed to go inside, a huge crowd of Kamal’s supporters holding the national flag were seen entering the venue with a song blaring in the background: tum apna nazariya paas rakho, hum apna nazariya rakhtay hain.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2016