‘Time for PPP as Muttahida has failed to serve Karachiites’

Once a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) voter in the party’s strongest foothold, District Central’s PS-125 constituency, Syed Muhammad Naqi, 57, is all set to contest the general elections on a ticket of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the MQM’s biggest political rival in Karachi.

Naqi does not think the MQM is much of a contender anymore in the city, let alone in District Central’s provincial assembly constituency. “They failed to serve the people of Karachi. It’s time for the PPP,” he said while speaking to The News.

He pointed out that the Jamaat-e-Islami can be a contender because their vote bank is permanent, but that of the MQM has fizzled out.

“Frankly speaking, I voted MQM in 2018. I wasn’t contesting the elections then,” he said, adding that he has seen the party’s “abysmal” performance over the past five years. Naqi agreed that the PPP has never won in District Central, which is mostly an Urdu-speaking area, but he pointed out that it has been the MQM’s politics that made it difficult for the PPP to enter the constituencies here. “Things have changed now. People want development, and PPP has done that in District Central,” he said, adding that this is the reality which the MQM has failed to understand.

Naqi lives in PS-125’s Ancholi area. The constituency mostly comprises Gulberg Town, Federal B Area and Ancholi. The MQM has fielded Syed Adil Askari for the PA seat, while the JI has fielded Muhammad Farooq Naimatullah.

In the 2018 general elections the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) Abbas Jaffrey won the constituency with 30,687 votes by defeating the MQM’s Abdul Haseeb by almost 4,000 votes. This time round the PTI has fielded Fozia Siddiqui for the seat.

Naqi is positive that the PTI does not stand a chance in Karachi because the party’s chief “miserably failed to deliver in the city when they were in power”. Naqi is a realtor by profession, and owns two housing societies on the M9 motorway. Karachi’s iconic Winterland also belongs to him. He is also the chairman of the Allama Zameer Akhtar Naqvi Foundation. The deceased Shia cleric’s library at Hussain Manzil in Ancholi’s Block 20 is Naqi’s ancestral home.

“I was a big fan of Allama sahib,” he said, adding that he had requested the cleric to shift to his ancestral home, Hussain Manzil, and have a library opened there.

“The library has such precious books which one no one in the world has,” he said. He added that due to his close relations with Naqvi, he also enjoys massive support in Ancholi. Naqi came into prominence and developed cordial ties with the PPP after the Abbas Town blast in 2013. He said that Shia cleric Allama Talib Johri nominated him to deal with the PPP-led provincial government for the reconstruction of the buildings that were damaged.

Naqi said that the PPP’s government facilitated them, and they developed good relations with each other. He said PPP leader Saeed Ghani visited his home in 2020 and invited him to join the party, adding that he initially refused, but his peers and other party members helped change his mind.

He also said that it is easier for him to serve the city by being part of the ruling party. Five to six ministers of the provincial cabinet had visited his house when he joined the party. He added that he enjoys good relations with the PPP’s Waqar Mehdi, Shehla Raza and Dr Asim Hussain.