There is a reason for that.
PTI and JI tried earlier to come up with one common candidate but later they realized it is not critical for them to win the seat. Why, we will come back to this point in a moment. While it is critical for MQM to win this seat particularly when a lot of evidences of terrorism, target killing, bhatta perchi and lastly big catch of illegal weapons and accused criminals from MQM headquarters at nine-zero.
Other than MQM party leaders everybody believe these accusations are true. Even the followers of MQM also believe their party has been involved not now but from the very beginning in these unlawful activities. Even Altaf Hussain has said more than once in his phonecasts speeches that MQM rabta committe members in Karachi have been involved in land grabbing and other undesirable activities.
There is a case under investigation against Altaf Hussain and other MQM leaders in the United Kingdom for money laundering and instigating his followers in Pakistan to kill their opponent. The case in point murdering of Zehra Shahid of PTI in Karachi.
London police is also investigating the murder case of Dr. Imran Farooq, a MQM leader. So far all the leads are ending up towards MQM.
As it was not enough, Saulat Mirza and Hamaad Siddiquee’s statements which involve MQM leadership in killings and other illegal activities further put Altaf Hussain and MQM leadership in defensive position.
In this situation MQM wants to win the election to show to the public that people (their voters) still believe in MQM that it is a clean party. But that thinking is like MQM cheating itself. That is why MQM thinks winning this by-election will help boost its voters and workers.
On the other hand PTI and JI want to gauge how much dent they have made on MQM’s voter base by rallying for election in NA-246 which is home ground of MQM. And what is the effect of aforementioned incidents and accusations on MQM’s reputation. That will help both of these parties to design their action plans for local government and future parliamentary elections.
