Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin

[Jolie]

Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin

@Silaaj

Call him an alternate goon, but Zulfikar Mirza is an alternate nonetheless. He has decided to form another party. We all know of his motives, but point is, he was able to use influence (positive or negative) to sway people away from PPP.

I dont think making inroads into Sindh is out of the question for PTI. The only thing PTI misjudged was the time it would take to make a difference. Otherwise, I dont think its a tall order by any means. People are fed up. But noone has the courage to act independently, because of the fear factor. Its just a matter of uniting those people under a banner. PTI has the means, and the personality to go with it.

Isn’t it the same old story? Whichever land lord got the arms, private militia and control on his local haris would use his personal “influence” to decide the voting patterns. Mirza had been ruling Badin for decades, it is an absolute dump yet people did not question him on his performance, they simply voted against whoever he said to vote against. With the type of power and control he has, would Mirza ever allow a third party to freely campaign and get votes in Badin that might potentially concede a defeat for him? No.

If you are talking about fear factor, then this is exactly how fear factor works. There had been numerous stand offs between Mirza’s militias and Sindh police - and this just reinforces the reality that you need arms and killers in your ranks to go against the grain there. PTI cannot afford to go down that route neither in Punjab nor in Sindh. What do you think PPP would have done to the candidate (or his supporters) if he was not a dangerously armed and a high profile don that is Mirza? There is a reason why PPP left him alone, otherwise a repeat of Kharipur killings would have happened all over Badin.

PTI’s time is precious and resources are limited. They don’t have the luxury of wasting a generation to work on Sindh to get some votes (public sympathy here and there is not the question). If they have to make any inroads in Sindh - they will have to shake hands with likes of Mirza and Mumtaz Bhutto to use their negative influence to achieve something positive, but it’s not an easy thing to do. PTI will have to risk a lot of things.