On August 14, a new leadership took charge of Karachi’s administration under the recently introduced city government plan.  These leaders, led by Naimatullah Khan, a former ISI employee, an income tax lawyer, and a senior  leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami, have found a slot in the new system only because the city’s major ethnic group, the MQM, refused to participate in the elections.  Karachi is, once again, faced with a political void.  The majority of the 3,758 councillors, who emerged from this exercise, are non-mohajirs, representing various minority ethnic groups and are directly or indirectly affiliated with various politico, religious and ethnic non-mohajir groups.

         Contrary to the past, when the MQM’s breakaway faction fought elections in the absence of the mother party, this time around surprisingly, both of them, one led by London-based Altaf Hussain and the other by his former lieutenant, Afaq Ahmed, decided to boycott the elections.  Thus, technically, the majority of Karachi’s population has been disenfranchised.  The mohajir community still supports the two groups despite the fact that a substantial number do not agree with their policies.  Evidently, no other political party has been able to dispel the sense of insecurity and disillusionment from the mohajir psyche.

            The primary reason for the MQM boycott was the division of Karachi into 18 towns under which the city government elections were held.  Both MQM groups claimed that the new demarcation had forced the mohajirs into a disadvantageous position against other ethnic groups, who, though present in the city in large numbers, could still not outnumber the mohajirs.  The new demarcation has radically changed the pattern of the MQM vote-bank.

            In the past, the MQM swept the national and provincial assembly elections from the urban areas of Sindh, including Karachi, because the constituencies did not accurately portray the actual presence of other ethnic groups.  This time, it was the other way around. Instead of judiciously dividing the city in a manner which would portray the actual strength of each and every ethnic group, the balance, intentionally or otherwise, has now tilted in favour of ethnic groups other than the mohajirs.  “Had we fought the elections we could have won them. But by a simple majority only,” says MQM leader, Kunwar Khalid Younus.  “The way they carved up the city, it was next to impossible to retain the same success ratio that the MQM had witnessed in the past during the provincial and national assembly elections.”

            “Delimitation and the unfair distribution of population forced us to boycott the elections.  Secondly, we believe this entire exercise was illegal and unconstitutional as local bodies are a provincial subject and the centre has no power to impose any new system,” maintained MQM spokesperson and leader, Nasreen Jalil.  “And in Karachi, other minority ethnic groups rather than the mohajir majority, have been given more representation in the city government.”

            The elections have also become controversial because of the blatant intervention of the armed forces personnel and the government.  Though the polls were supposed to have been held on a non-party basis, all the political parties and groups fought these elections through their proxys or known activists and leaders.  Long before the actual polls, each and every candidate was closely vetted by the army who, in some cases, even suggested on which posts certain candidates should contest the elections.

            The two groups who finally fought the round for the mayor and deputy mayor of Karachi, Al-Khidmat and the Democratic group, were respectively backed by Jamaat-i-Islami and the People’s Party.  It is an open secret that before his election as mayor of Karachi, Naimatullah Khan had tea with the corps commander Sindh, leaving Karachi abuzz with rumours that Naimatullah Khan and his deputy, Tariq Hasan, were basically the army-approved panel.

            The freshly elected city government, however, is still in limbo.  Though the majority of the Sindh government departments have been handed over to it, there is total silence on the subject of fiscal independence of the city government.

            Since August 14, the new mayor and deputy mayor are spending most of their time attending functions as chief guests.  The provincial government has yet to delegate powers to the city government while Karachi continues to be run by the army.  “If the new city government gets financial independence it can deliver.  Otherwise they won’t be able to do anything,” says Haleem Siddiqi of the Muslim League (like-minded group), whose candidate, Tariq Hasan, won the post for deputy mayor.

            Many political analysts believe the entire concept of local bodies will fizzle out if the provincial government fails to give financial autonomy to the city government.  Despite its anti-MQM approach, the establishment it appears still has some hope in the MQM.  Since General Pervez Musharraf took over power, hundreds of MQM activists and supporters, languishing in various jails, have either been released or secured bail.  And this was possible only because the present military regime did not try to interfere in the judicial process or pressurise the judiciary.

            According to inside sources, the military is still trying to bring the MQM back into the election process to fight the provincial and national assembly elections due next year.  MQM leaders, however, claim that will only be possible if the establishment accepts the grievances of the party and recognise its right of representation.  “Remove our grievances. Only then will we become a part of the system,” says Nasreen Jalil.  “We are not in a power game for the sake of power.  We have some objectives: to live with dignity and have equal rights.”  The MQM’s participation in the proposed national and provincial assembly elections will largely depend on how the military regime demarcates the new constituencies as announced by General Musharraf in his August 14 address.  “If they try to rob the MQM of its actual representation in the urban areas of Sindh, as they did in the recent local government elections, then the MQM would prefer to distance itself from that process also,” remarked a senior MQM leader.