The campaigns of the local government polls have begun to attract people who now assemble at the offices of their candidates but not without risking their lives in some of the areas where tension between rival candidates is high.
A survey of the city on Thursday showed that PPP-dominated areas in District South, Malir and Gadap have rivals from MMA and MQM. The ethnic groups that support candidates in these areas are the same and their relations with each other exist.
They all have the same temperament, and would not mind going wild on the slightest provocation from any party. In the disturbed Lyari town, the offices of the rival candidates came under attack where free for all could be seen intermittently throughout Wednesday night.
Local people said that aerial firing, use of knives, daggers and lathi has become normal activity in the area, adding that all the three political parties were campaigning for their nominees in total disregard to Election Commission's directive against supporting candidates on the non-party basis polls.
The similar situation exists in Saeedabad, Turk Mohalla, Baldia Town and Moach Goth on the one side and on the other Mithadar, Kharadar, Bakra Piri, Lee Market, Rangiwara and Kuhamarwara are the other localities where tension prevails.
In these localities, candidates are exploiting water shortage, frequent power breakdown and worsening law and order situation as their campaign slogans.
These slogans do no suit MQM, and to an extent to the candidates being supported by the MMA, and they resist the same with full force. This resistance has created tension among the supporters of the candidates.
Ramswami, Runchore Line and Bohra Pir present a different picture where candidates from Sunni Tehrik are in better position except a few candidates of MQM. The Sunni Tehrik has fear of clashes between its candidates and the supporters of its rival religious party as well as the MQM.
The prospective voters in these three areas are discussing recent murders of the activists of Sunni Tehrik. The people of the area said that they wanted peace in their areas as a small incident was enough to disturb economic activity and send daily-wage earner unemployed.
At the same time, all business activities come to a stand-still. "We will vote to peace-loving candidates. We do not support political parties any more", they added.
District Malir has PPP support in the rural area and a few MMA-supported candidates were there to challenge PPP candidates. The MQM has insignificant presence in the rural area whereas in urban Malir there seems to have evolved some kind of understanding between PPP and MQM. Peace is likely to prevail here on poling day.
Landhi and the old 'no go area' is one single block that would still put up resistance to MQM's candidates. This area still has supporters of the Haqiqi faction of the MQM and it still has its complaints against them.
These elections if allowed to go free, there are chances that some Haqiqi candidates may win and later align either with MMA or PPP.
Gadap Town has remained a PPP-dominated area. The people here said that they would select candidate who would be able to arrange permanent supply of water and electricity, better road communication as well as improvement in the law and order situation.
They said that their leaders were slain and harassed in different manners, but the wrongdoers were still at large, adding that the offices of their candidates were protected, but foolproof security arrangement would be difficult in the area. "We stay here at the offices till late night and move out in groups properly in order to save ourselves."
In Gadap, the people are fearless about clashes among the rival candidates as most of them are either know to each other or are relatives. "Elections would be peaceful in Gadap," they say.
In the meantime, the provincial administration has assured at a meeting held at the Governor House that law and order would be maintained at all cost and no activity that may lead to disturbance at a particular polling station would be left to take its own course. "We will deal with it with force and let no one take law and order into his hands," said a high-ranking police officer.
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