Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
Even if you act 1/10th of your age, you would sound more mature.
The above picture is of Asad Umar making his way across a rail track, as his car was stuck in a jam, and he walked to avoid traffic, because he did not want to be late for his meeting. Chances are, you know this anyway, but since you inherited your immaturity from your senior saeen Bilawal, you have to show it.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
I wouldn't call Zulfiqar Mirza an "alternative". He's a powerful local don with an armed militia of his own and band of loyal supporters, and the whole basis of his campaign was that "I'm very much still a PPP Jiayla, I just don't like Asif Ali Zardari, but Jiye Bhutto nontheless". So nothing different. PPP simply couldn't be bothered to challenge him otherwise if a weak and non armed candidate was standing - PPP would have thrashed him and killed his voters by unleashing Sindh police and local goons, or asking their loyal to screw the administrative process.
PTI stands absolutely no chance winning a single seat in Sindh even in next 40 years, but if they want to "form a meaningful ground level" in Sindh, then they will unfortunately have to make alliances with likes of Mirza and Mumtaz Bhutto and that means facing a huge public backlash, and I don't think it's worth it. In fact, other than Punjab, they now need to start playing close attention to the events in FATA, and become a meaningful political voice there.
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.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
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.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
Structure of rural sindh is in front of us. Waderas who command entire villages, and hold the entire population as virtual hostages.
I used to work in the Karachi Stock Exchange, and when IPOs are released, only one application is allowed per NIC card. Private goons of waderas would come in from interior Sindh with bags full of NIC cards (belonging to the entire village), and would file applications for each card. The end beneficiary naturally was the wadera or saeen of the village/tribe. Thats how weak the local population is.
Through local presence, PTI can encourage some fearlessness among the local population, enabling people to eventually stand up and have enough gall to take a stand against their waderas. It will take time, but it can happen. *It happened in NA-246. PTI didnt win, but people did vote for IMran Ismail. * Anyone who thinks that PPP enjoys widespread support in Sindh even now is mistaken. This is more of a coercion/helplessness vote.
I'm sorry, I disagree. Nothing really happened in NA-246. MQM got whopping 96k votes with lead of over 70k at the time when everyone thought that extremely damaging confessions of MQM's mass target killers, money laundering case, Indian funding and polling under Rangers' supervision would make the party extremely unpopular. But the situation didn't even come close to that.
You simply cannot underestimate the power of racial xenophobia in Sindh. Neither PPP or MQM supporters/sympathisers would ever use their votes to punish these parties because there is a serious fear and mistrust of 'outsiders. In their eyes, all evils of PPP and MQM will always be considered "lesser evil" against the untested and untried "outsiders". The ultimate boogeyman.
Imran was shouting on top of his lungs highlight MQM's thuggery, mass murdering, extortion, capital flight and all MQM had to do was to call him a Punjab sponsored Trojan Horse in Muhajir areas working for a Punjabi Army with an aim to eliminate the entire Muhajir race, and NA-246 was in their bag. I listened to all Altaf Hussain's speeches in the last days of NA-246 campaign, and I challenge anyone to prove that racial xenophobia did not play a role there.
Of course Imran Ismail got votes - there will always be public sympathy and some votes for PTI. It's the most popular party, it is bound to have some support and votes in heavily populated areas but the question is can there ever be enough votes to get likes of PPP and MQM out of power? Nope. Not in our lifetime.
PTI's resources are precious and time is limited - they need to pick and choose their battles. They are not the thakeydaars of eliminating fear politics in areas where they aren't even welcomed to begin with. So need to pick fights that make the ultimate difference at bigger level. The current situation in Punjab is also becoming increasingly similar, but the only plus point there is that Punjab traditionally offers a really close competition/tough fight between two competing groups. Be it PMLN versus Independents or PMLN vs PTI. There isn't a sense of ethnic blockade there.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
....And I'm glad.
But truth remains, Sindh was never a model province and beacon of progress and development even when Sindh's saintly saviours Bhuttos were alive and enjoying power at the highest level. Stop blaming others.
Again read history before you offer subjective comments. ZAB came into power because of winning seats in Punjab, not in Sindh. He got more votes from Punjab than in Sindh. He was true nationalist who not only spent his time in Sindh's development but all over the country. A great leader, too bad Pakistan will never have such leader.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
Even if you act 1/10th of your age, you would sound more mature. The above picture is of Asad Umar making his way across a rail track, as his car was stuck in a jam, and he walked to avoid traffic, because he did not want to be late for his meeting. Chances are, you know this anyway, but since you inherited your immaturity from your senior saeen Bilawal, you have to show it.
How do you know that? You were not with him do you? Looks like he is running away from some serious trouble :)
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
Again read history before you offer subjective comments. ZAB came into power because of winning seats in Punjab, not in Sindh. He got more votes from Punjab than in Sindh. He was true nationalist who not only spent his time in Sindh's development but all over the country. A great leader, too bad Pakistan will never have such leader.
Go on then....list some of his and his daughter's lasting services for Sindh.
Let's hear about wonders of quota system.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
Bhutto this, Bhutto that.
All nonsense. Neither did anything for this country except pillage it and make things worse.
Only thing you can give them credit for is that at least they were smart (a lot of good that did us), the latest bhutto is unbelievably dull...and I mean Nawaz Sharif type dull. Just a complete potato.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
How do you know that? You were not with him do you? Looks like he is running away from some serious trouble :)
I got my info from several different tweets, made by sane folks.
Anwer Pasha got his info from a tweet by Akhtar Ch. One look at Akhtar Ch's twitter feed, and you will get the idea.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
I'm sorry, I disagree. Nothing really happened in NA-246. MQM got whopping 96k votes with lead of over 70k at the time when everyone thought that extremely damaging confessions of MQM's mass target killers, money laundering case, Indian funding and polling under Rangers' supervision would make the party extremely unpopular. But the situation didn't even come close to that.
Not sure if you have ever been to Karachi, but NA-246 for MQM is like Larkana for PPP, or raiwind for PMLN, except with weapons. Getting 24k+ votes for Imran Ismail is no small change. Imran Khan only made a single visit to the constituency to stump for Imran Ismail, and this was the result. Consistent projection, and regular visits can, and will bring about a change.
Keep in mind the fact that the situation is no different in Punjab, where local mafias and gangs are used by PMLN as protectors and enforcers in order to extract votes. PTI has made major inroads there as well.
And dont forget that a major source of votes for PPP in Sindh, MQM in Karachi, and PMLN in Punjab is connivance of Police, ECP and NADRA. So its not just the people
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
Not sure if you have ever been to Karachi, but NA-246 for MQM is like Larkana for PPP, or raiwind for PMLN, except with weapons. Getting 24k+ votes for Imran Ismail is no small change. Imran Khan only made a single visit to the constituency to stump for Imran Ismail, and this was the result. Consistent projection, and regular visits can, and will bring about a change.
Keep in mind the fact that the situation is no different in Punjab, where local mafias and gangs are used by PMLN as protectors and enforcers in order to extract votes. PTI has made major inroads there as well.
And dont forget that a major source of votes for PPP in Sindh, MQM in Karachi, and PMLN in Punjab is connivance of Police, ECP and NADRA. So its not just the people
Yes I have been to Karachi, but not NA-246.
You can look at the positives from a margin of 70k defeat, but to me this is a pretty big number in support of MQM. NA-246 is one elections where you could not blame rigging in any shape or form but you might be able to in Raiwind. People came out in massive number to vote for MQM to save them. In my view, with limited resources, it is an absolute waste of money and time campaigning in areas where ethnic factor triumphs all other factors and merit. PTI is better off spending money and resources in areas where they are losing with much smaller margins and needless to say those areas are in Punjab, not in Sindh and Karachi. Of course Karachi contingent needs to do some homework too, but they pick better areas to work on.
I haven't been to NA-246, but I am pretty sure it is not one those areas Imran or PTI workers can randomly go in and hold a jalsa. I am beyond confident that it is not anything like Model Town, Lahore! The totally unexpected and shocking vacancy of NA-246 provided a good excuse for PTI to go in there, but otherwise it is not one those areas that PTI can freely campaign in normal circumstances. Even Imran said that they mainly went in there to make a symbolic statement of courage against politics of fear. Yes it looks good on paper, makes a nice little cameo on PTI's CV, but we need to be honest and stop pretending that these annual visits will bring any practical change. Maybe if by any chance PTI gets federal power, it will definitely more authority to make inroads in Sindh, but as a party, it stands no chance.
You cannot compare situation with Punjab with Sindh - comparatively, PTI or at least Imran had always enjoyed much bigger level of public sympathy and support in Punjab than in Karachi or Sindh where Imran's personal image and background carries a lot of ethnic baggage.
So it leads back to the point that with limited resources, valuable time and vulnerable workers, pick your battles wisely.
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
You can read what the adviser of Imran Khan is saying
You voted for him in 2013
Re: Zulfiqar Mirza group wins all 14 wards in Badin
Super permanent kirai ka lota 