City turns into mini-Pakistan ahead of Benazir’s return

[EagleEyes]

City turns into mini-Pakistan ahead of Benazir’s return

KARACHI: Syed Mehdi Shah reached Karachi with around 5,000 supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party from the Northern Areas on Tuesday. They will join the grand rally on October 18 to receive Benazir Bhutto at the airport.

“At least 300,000 people of the Northern Areas are settled in Karachi and they will also participate in the rally,” Mehdi Shah from Skardu told Daily Times at the Karachi Press Club (KPC).

This was not the only caravan that reached the capital of Sindh on Tuesday. A group of Hindu supporters who had started their journey on foot from the far-flung Umerkot district also arrived. “We started on October 8 and reached here via Mirpurkhas, Tando Allah Yar, Hyderabad and the Super Highway,” said Lekhaj Malh Malhi, who led 60 members of the PPP. He is the records secretary of the PPP Umerkot district chapter.

Qazi Bashir Farooqi of the PPP Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Chapter said that their comrades were also on way to Karachi and would enter late night.

Another group of supporters reached Dhabeji in district Thatta on way to Karachi. Their tour by foot continued on Eid-ul-Fitr which they celebrated at Gharo.

Meanwhile, motorcades carrying the PPP’s workers and supporters have left Peshawar (NWFP) and Rawalpindi, Lahore, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur (Punjab) as well. Shah Mehmood Qureshi is leading the Lahore caravan and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf the one from Rawalpindi.

According to Nafees Siddiqui, provincial general secretary of the PPP, Sardar Lashkari Raeesani and Akbar Lasi are leading the Balochistan rally towards Karachi and they will reach via Hub. Another motorcade from Balochistan will arrive via Jacobabad district. “They will reach by Wednesday night,” Siddiqui predicted.

Aftab Shahban Mirani said that the mammoth rally of October 18 will break all records for a rally of its kind in Pakistan.

Babar Awan, finance secretary of the PPP, said that all those aspiring to contest the forthcoming elections as PPP candidates, were assigned the task of showing their strength. Members from the local chapters to the higher echelons of the Punjab province and ordinary supporters would also reach Karachi, he added.

Answering a question, Murad Shah said that at least 10,000 supporters from Dadu district alone would participate in the rally. He said he wasn’t counting supporters who would have their own transport.

“God willing, at least 1,000 vehicles including buses, cars, trucks, etc from Thatta district will join the rally,” said Imtiaz Qureshi of the PPP District Thatta chapter.

Babar Awan, who hails from the Punjab, agreed with the notion that the October 18 rally would outnumber the April 1986 Lahore rally that was staged to receive Ms Bhutto on her arrival.

“When I saw Sindhi and Baloch in large numbers in the rallies across the city, I thought Karachi has turned into the interior of Sindh where it has strong mass support,” said a political observer. But he hastened to add that now it seems that Karachi has really turned into a mini Pakistan.

He referred to the songs of the PPP and the graffiti that welcomed Ms Bhutto in almost all the known languages spoken in major parts of Pakistan. This is another indication that she and her party is popular among almost all known ethnic linguistic groups.

Thousands of Pakistan Peoples Party workers who arrived at Karachi will be staying with relatives, friends or complete strangers but comrades in PPP-dominant neighbourhoods. Shireen Jinnah Colony, for example, which is just a stone’s throw from Bhutto’s Bilawal House residence, is jam packed.

The party’s organization skills have been tested. The reception committee is headed by Sherry Rehman, security by Maj. Gen. (retd) Ehsan Ahmed and arrangements are being made by Haji Muzaffar Ali Shujra.

PPP MPA Rafique Engineer told Daily Times that wedding halls in Lyari Town, Gizri and Clifton will be used. Temporary camps have also been erected near the airport, toll plaza and Mawach Goth. “They will arrange their own food,” he said. They have also vacated several schools and farm houses on the Super Highway.

MPA Sassui Palijo said that she would lead a convoy of 800 buses. Farzana Baloch said that wedding halls on Shahra-e-Faisal had been rented for women. “We will also accommodate many of them in our houses.”

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

 

[EagleEyes]

I simply dont understand! How the heck they get soo much supporters? Illiterate? I dont believe it!

 

[IceCold]

They are just collecting supporters from all over pakistan and in 500 different vechiles they are made to reach karachi. These days you can offer money to anyone and he will start supporting you no big deal. BB has placed a budget of 70 core for her elections campagin. Where did that money come from. It is out of that 90 core that she took with her. So no problem for her if she spends this much money on campagin, her plain is to get 140 out of it once she gets the chair. The real thing will be what support she have in voting, as people know the real she. I think its media's responsibility to highlight the corruption that these leaders have done in the past no just highligh the fault lines within the government.

 

[Spring Onion]

I simply dont understand! How the heck they get soo much supporters? Illiterate? I dont believe it!

Webby Ice had replied your querry now if i tell you the PPP workers have been sent to Karachi and now the carvans have reached there even from remotest areas of NWFP so you can imagine from all over Pakistan how many would have been there

pluse PPP has a good support they have good jiyalaz.

 

[EagleEyes]

I was watching the Geo Tv last night, and damn. She has some support! People were coming to Karachi from all over Pakistan, but the interesting part is that police has already blocked the ways to the air port so these people dont invade the air port itself. Thats a security concern.

 

[Spring Onion]

Aur sono ahsan jee
---------
All educational institutions to remain closed on Oct 18.

KARACHI, Oct 17 (APP): All educational institutions in Karachi
will remain closed on Thursday.
Announcing this Sindh Chief Secretary Aijaz Ahmed Qureshi said
that decision to keep all educational institutions closed on Oct 18
due to the concern of parents and possibilities of traffic jams. - APP

 

[Spring Onion]

Pakistan, but the interesting part is that police has already blocked the ways to the air port so these people dont invade the air port itself. Thats a security concern.

Yes the containers have been put on roads leading to Airport and indeed that is due to secuirty concerns as BB is also scared this time.
The situation is not the same MQM is not in much love with her same is with PML(Q) .
But thank God they have poor religiouse elements to balm on if anything happend

 

[EagleEyes]

Yaar, our people seriously dont get tired of politicians. Some support because they think they will get something out of it (as they will have power), and some do it because they are arrogant of the future and its consequences. I read a post of this retired Major, and he was talking about how the common people lives haven't changed, and how this government cant do anything for them. Seriously, what will Benazir do that Musharraf or the current government cannot do? Benazir ne kon sa ter mara when she was in power? Yet, you want to give her another chance! How pathetic.

 

[Sam Dhanraj]

Yes the containers have been put on roads leading to Airport and indeed that is due to secuirty concerns as BB is also scared this time.

True....it shows...



KARACHI - Oct 16: This bullet-proof vehicle, currently parked in a piece of land next to the Bilawal House, will take PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto from the airport to the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam on Oct 18.—Photo by Shakil Adil
Source- Dawn