KARACHI: After years of mutual hostility, the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan are inching closer to forge an electoral alliance on some of the city’s hotly contested constituencies.

While the two parties have shied away from acknowledging reports that they had been discussing a seat-adjustment agreement, ANP provincial president Shahi Syed, who is contesting elections from two National Assembly constituencies, has hinted at having an alliance with the MQM-P.

During his door-to-door campaign in NA-238, a Malir district constituency, on Friday, he was reported to have told his supporters that “our fight was with terrorists and it has ended”, according to an ANP spokesperson.

Muttahida announces its candidates; Farooq Sattar in the run

Mr Syed was apparently referring to his party’s hostile relations with the unified MQM during 2008-2012, which resulted in a serious law and order problem in the metropolis, and the removal of MQM founder Altaf Hussain by the current MQM-P leadership after his Aug 22, 2016 incendiary speech.

An ANP source told Dawn that Mr Syed had told his supporters that his party had only stood up against “terrorism” in Karachi and it had no dispute with the MQM-P, which he said is now “supporting us in the fight against terrorism”.

The source said Mr Syed was of the view that the ANP would support the MQM-P in the elections if it showed willingness to work together in the city. “Pakhtun and Mohajirs are the reality of this city and there should be harmony among the two communities,” said the source.

MQM-P leader Aminul Haq told Dawn that his party always contested elections without having any “electoral alliance” with any party. “[But] local adjustment may be possible at some seats with any of the political parties,” he added.

Sources in the MQM-P and ANP confirmed that the two parties were holding talks with each other for quite some time and a serious effort was made by the former after the 2015 local government elections to forge an alliance with the ANP in Karachi’s West district for the election of chairman and vice chairman of the district municipal corporation.

Recently, ANP’s Shahi Syed had attended an Iftar dinner hosted by the MQM-P’s Bahadurabad faction.

MQM-P announces poll candidates

The MQM-P released a list of its candidates on Friday according to which senior leader Dr Farooq Sattar was contesting elections on two NA seats in Karachi. Only on Thursday Dr Sattar had said he would not be contesting the polls and would instead help run the party’s election campaign.

Moreover, senior leaders Amir Khan and Faisal Subzwari were not in the list as they were not contesting the upcoming elections.

The candidates on Karachi’s 21 NA seats are: Deewan Chand Chawla (NA-236), Dr Nadeem Maqbool (NA-237), Gulfraz Khattak (NA-238), Khwaja Sohail Mansoor (NA-239), Iqbal Mohammad Ali (NA-240), Moin Amir Pirzada (NA-241), Kishwar Zehra (NA-242), Ali Raza Abidi (NA-243), Rauf Siddiqui (NA-244), Dr Farooq Sattar (NA-245 & NA-247), Mehfooz Yar Khan (NA-246), Afshan Imran (NA-248), Aslam Shah (NA-249), Fayyaz Qaimkhani (NA-250), Aminul Haq (NA-251), Abdul Qadir Khanzada (NA-252), Usama Qadri (NA-253), Shaikh Salahuddin (NA-254), Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui (NA-255) and Amir Chishti (NA-256).

In Hyderabad, the MQM-P fielded Salahuddin (NA-227) and Sabir Qaimkhani (NA-226).

The candidates on Karachi’s 44 provincial assembly seats are: Khalida Atiyab (PS-87), Abul Hasan (PS-88), Shahid Nawaz (PS-89), Mohammad Pervez (PS-90), Mumtaz Umrani (PS-91), Mohammad Hussain (PS-92), Hameeduz Zafar (PS-93), Mohammad Wajahat (PS-94), Javed Hanif (PS-95), Ghulam Jilani (PS-96), Waqar Shah (PS-97), Masood Mehmood (PS-98), Mussadiq Shah (PS-99), Sana Ali (PS-100), Haroon Siddiqui (PS-101), Mohammad Arsalan Khan (PS-102), Tanzeel Abdul Rauf (PS-103), Khurram Shehzad (PS-104), Faisal Rafiq (PS-105), Zahid Mansoori (PS-106), Tahir Qureshi (PS-109), Adil Askari (PS-110), Mujahid Rasool (PS-111), Afshan Qamar (PS-112), Mangla Sharma (PS-113), Shahid Mian (PS-114), Faizan Jaffery (PS-115), Kiran Masoor (PS-116), Sadaqat Hussain (PS-117), Adil Shahzad (PS-118), Ali Khurshidi (PS-119), Ahmed Nadeem Mughal (PS-120), Basit Siddiqui (PS-121), Mazahir Ameer (PS-122), Waseem Qureshi (PS-123), Khwaja Izharul Hasan (PS-124), Abdul Haseeb (PS-125), Asif Ali Khan (PS-126), Kanwar Naveed Jameel (PS-127), Abbas Jaffery (PS-128), Maaz Muqaddam (PS-129) and Jamal Ahmed (PS-130).

The MQM-P said it would announce candidates on PS-107 and 108 later.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2018