Arguably, one of the most crucial aspects of the 2018 general elections is how Karachi responded to the calls of Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakistan Muslim League (N), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and others. Karachi voted overwhelmingly in favour of Imran Khan's PTI. This party, which came into existence a little over two decades ago, has emerged as Sindh's second largest party after PPP and Karachi's largest party, relegating the MQM, a party that had been dominating urban Sindh for over three decades, to a distant second position. No doubt, this is no mean feat insofar as Karachi's socio-politico dynamics are concerned. In fact, PTI stood a chance of victory after it triggered the unraveling process of MQM through its outstanding performance in the 2013 elections. But it has laid its claim to the city of teeming millions through its more than outstanding performance. Not only have its candidates humiliated many MQM stalwarts on various traditional national and provincial legislative seats, one of its candidates has even humbled PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in the latter's stronghold of Lyari in Karachi. In other words, Karachi has voted for Imran Khan or a change that he has promised to bring about across the country of which Karachi happens to be the financial and economic hub.
The post-Altaf MQM has however shown that it cannot be easily dismissed. Although it has found to its utter chagrin a drastic reduction in the number of its seats for both national and provincial assemblies, its voter base has successfully helped it avert a widely forecast elimination or whitewash in the elections. This voter base has in fact helped a beleaguered MQM remain relevant in the post-election scenario as it happens to be the first party that has been approached by PTI 'king maker' Jahangir Tareen to join the PTI-led government at Centre and work as a junior partner in the Sindh Assembly where PTI has decided to play the role of an effective Opposition. Senior PTI leader Tareen seems to have made the right move to reach out to entire Karachi or even those who had not voted for his party in a big way with a view to evolving a long-term strategy for the resolution of multifarious issues that Karachi faces, including precarious condition of infrastructure, growing joblessness among the youth, lack of civic amenities and challenges of political, ethnic and sectarian violence. MQM appears to have responded to PTI's overture in an effective and meaningful manner by staying away from a multi-party anti-PTI conference in Islamabad.
It is quite interesting to note that PML-N has done fairly well as compared to its 2013 performance in Karachi where its chief Shahbaz Sharif lost election by a very narrow margin. What is equally important to note is the performance of Tehrik-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) that has been able to grab two provincial assembly seats from Karachi; this religious group has even performed better than the religious alliance of MMA that has clinched only one provincial assembly seat. The Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), which came into existence two years ago to rival MQM, happens to be the biggest loser in the election. Not only did its candidates, including its chairman Mustafa Kamal, fail to win on any seat, it also failed to cross even the 100,000 popular vote mark across Sindh. It was on the eve of elections that the PSP chief had claimed that the next Sindh chief minister would be from his party. Little did he, however, know that his party had no electoral prospects because Karachiites had chosen PTI as MQM's alternate. The electoral defeat of a party that had dolphin as its election symbol could be described through the following rhyming couplet of a ghazal:
Hamein to apnon ne loota, Ghairon maen kahan dum tha, Meri kashti wahan doobi jahan pani kam tha. Its crude translation is: ("We were looted by our own; strangers did not have the power, My boat capsized where it was shallow").
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