ASWJ in NA-258 by-election race too, just to show clout

The Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, formerly the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, boosted by its successes in the recent local government polls and the tremendous number of votes it had bagged in the 2013 general elections in Malir’s industrial and coastal areas, is now contesting the by-election for the NA-258 constituency.

The NA-258 fell vacant after the resignation of former state minister for communication Abdul Hakeem Baloch, who left the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and joined the Pakistan People’s Party last month.

The by-election for the constituency will be held on November 22.

ASWJ Karachi general secretary Allama Taj Muhammad Hanfi, and the outfit’s affiliate group Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party’s Karachi president Ashraf Memon, are among over 20 candidates who have submitted their nomination papers for the by-election.

 “Our party enjoys immense support in the Malir district and that’s why we have fielded our candidate for NA-258,” said Umar Muawiyah, the ASWJ Karachi spokesperson.

The results of the local government polls held in December 2015 and general elections 2013 corroborate Muawiyah’s claim.

The ASWJ, which earlier operated as the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan and the Millat-e-Islamia Pakistan before both were banned, participated in local government polls under the banner of the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party and secured the slots of chairperson, vice-chairperson and councillors in several union committees falling in the NA-258.

It formed alliances with the PPP, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the PML-N.

Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party candidate Sher Syed fetched the slot of the chairperson in the Muslimabad union committee in alliance with PML-N candidate Faisal Bukhari as his deputy.

In the neighbouring Dawood Chorangi union committee, Maulana Zareen Hazarvi of the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party grabbed the chairperson seat in alliance with Mairaj Swati, the JI candidate for the vice-chairperson slot.

Maulana Abdul Salam, a Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party candidate running for the slot of the vice-chairperson in the District Council Karachi’s Union Council 29, too had won in alliance with the Pakistan Muslim Alliance, a political group representing the Bengali community in the city.

However, the Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party’s electoral alliance with the PPP in the Muzaffarabad Colony union committee did not work well for the two parties.

Their candidates, Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party’s Maulana Mahiuddin Shah Al-Hussaini running for the chairperson’s slot and PPP’s Haji Misal Khan contesting for his deputy’s seat, lost to the alliance between the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl and the PML-N. The Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party-PPP alliance stood fourth in the race.

Muawiyah, however, maintained that the party had secured a number of councillor seats in the areas of Malir.

Most of the PS-128 falls in the NA-258 constituency from where ASWJ central chief Maulana Aurangzeb Farooqi, in the 2013 general polls, had bagged 23,635 votes and lost with a narrow margin to MQM candidate Syed Waqar Shah.

Although the ASWJ leaders have not confirmed would they choose Hanfi or Memon as the final candidate for the NA-258, the former is the most likely selection.

In the 2013 general polls, Hanfi had run for the PS-89 constituency, comprising Keamari, and ranked third by securing 5,639 votes.

Analysts who monitor electoral politics in the area believe that the ASWJ is not in a position to win the seat because most of the constituency comprises Sindhi and Baloch-populated areas.

“The ASWJ has influence in Pashtun, Bengali and Burmese-populated nieghbourhoods of the constituency, where they can secure many votes,” said a political activist of the area.

The group had recently organised a large public meeting at Muzaffarabad Colony’s football stadium on the 9th of Muharram.

“The ASWJ’s main objective behind contesting the election is to show its strength in the constituency where Farooqi lives,” he said.  

However, he added that the party had lost its strength in the city, especially in the constituency, because of several reasons.

“Farooqi had strengthened the group in the city, but because of his several months-long detentions in the jails of Punjab and his poor health after his release, the party is now facing a decline,” the activist said. Also, a number of ASWJ’ leaders have been killed in Karachi in recent years, the party leaders said.