Re: so what do you think will happen tomorrow in NA 122?
I know some of such people and they actually don't believe (or won't) that MQM did this. MQM is not the only one immune to this. There are also voters who have, as I said, experience from JI and bhutto days and only time would get rid of them. Be it mufahamat or else, many were pissed when imran wasn't forceful about the said terrorism in the past. His pro-taliban views as he did align himself with hamid gul also doesn't endear him.
I see the bigger picture w/o any power to vote, but even I am disturbed by his taliban leanings. He and nawaz vocally gave support to taliban and as many say now that he bails out sharif, he and noon league bailed out kayani for his inaction in North Waziristan.
The only real development that took place in Karachi under MQM was during Mustafa Kemal, even he has packed his bags, left the party, left the country and hasn’t looked back since. Doesn’t that send any kind of message to an average MQM voter/sympathiser?
Imran’s pro negotiation rhetoric was far more offensive to people of KPK than anyone else. ANP ran a full-fledged narrative against him, but somehow he ended up winning the government there.
Imran can’t speak a word of Pashto. Prior to 2013, his party had no prominent Pakhtoon member (in fact he has far more Karachi based leaders), he did not spend as much time campaigning in KPK as he did in Punjab, but somehow he was still given a ‘chance’ in KPK. Why Karachi/Sindh doesn’t have this tradition of welcoming new beginnings and giving others a ‘chance’ - the fundamental of any democratic political process?
Occasionally you hear from people how there’s still a certain group/generation in Karachi that still holds grudge against Imran Khan because of Miandad vs Imran rivalry – the caricature of Karachi vs Lahore/Punjabi mindset from the era. Even a certain member on here wrote a whole whiny post saying how Karachi folks still haven’t gotten over that perception. They’re still so traumatised by Imran’s certain mannerism and antics from cricketing days. How depressingly petty and sad is that?
MQM won NA-246 with whopping 70k more votes (against PTI's 24K) despite Baldia Town factory and Saulat Mirza episode. Shocking! It is not wrong to suggest that there is a certain subconscious hatred for Imran in Karachi along the ethnic lines that MQM so successfully manages to whip up? For starters only saying that IK is an anti Muhajir Trojan Horse popped up evil Punjabi Army was literally just enough! You can't really blame Imran for not making sense of the nasty ethnic politics of Karachi. It probably is indeed beyond him.
I am not asking MQM to be wiped out from Karachi, but even the mere idea of their voters/supporters ‘punishing’ them doesn’t seem to exist there, and that’s really worrying. Some local level self-reflection and introspection needs to be conducted. Karachi isn’t a Pind, nor typical argument of ‘jahil, rural, dhoti wearing’ folks who know nothing about politics can be applied to them.
