KARACHI, 24 January — A flurry of activities has started in Karachi with the announcement of changes in the country’s electoral laws.
While efforts have already been on during the last week for unity among different factions of the Muslim League, Imran Khan flew into the port city yesterday to talk about cooperation with Muttahida Qoumi Movement, and the newly floated Sindh Democratic Alliance.
Former Sen. Nasreen Jalil, however, said that a planned meeting between the cricketer-turned politician who now heads the Tehrik-i-Insaf Party, and the MQM however had to be postponed to a new date. Nawabzada Mohsin Ali Khan, Tehrik’s local organizer, had fixed a visit by Imran to the MQM headquarters of “90”, but the meeting had to be rescheduled to a later date because of some confusion about its timing.
MQM sources did not look very enthusiastic about having any sort of link with Imran, thinking that he is only an upstart, and had not been able to make any impact on the national scene. Imran party, in the opinion of some analysts, is yet to organize itself on sounder lines. “The Tehrik-i-Insaf looked eager, but we don’t know whether an understanding will really be possible between MQM and Imran Khan,” confided a local leader of the Muttahida to this correspondent.
Later Imran and some of his colleagues met the leaders of Sindh Democratic Alliance, which though new, may gather some support with the passage of time. It is being backed by the establishment, and enjoys the support of the Quaid-e-Azam faction of the Muslim League, which is being branded as a king’s party, having politicians like Chaudhri Shujaat, Gohar Ayub, Ejazul Haq, Haleem Siddiqi etc. Some more politicians are likely to visit Karachi, the biggest and the richest city of the country which is now expected to have 16 or 17 seats in the National Assembly and about 30 or more in the provincial legislature.
Considerable political activity is also being seen in the rest of the country. The army seems to be betting on forming a platform of smaller groups like the Tehrik-i-Insaf, the Tehrik-i-Istiqlal of former air force chief Air Marshal Asghar Khan, the breakaway faction of the Awami National party, which is now headed by Wali Khan’s former colleague, Ajmal Khattak, and the Sindh Democratic Alliance which is actually a conglomeration of splinter groups.
