KARACHI: To a great extent, the MQM’s call for a boycott of local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad was supported on Sunday but some people did defy it to vote in UC 7 and 9 at least in the party’s stronghold Azizabad—one of its main areas after Liaquatabad and Nazimabad.

The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan and the Jamaat-e-Islami appeared to be the reason for their participation.

According to presiding officers, the turnout rate was 50%. “The voter turnout increased in areas with a high population of Memons,” said our reporter. They showed up after noon.

The dynamics of Karachi’s politics changed after MQM founder Altaf Hussain gave an incendiary speech in 2016.

Altaf Hussain had delivered the fiery speech via telephone to a party gathering outside the Karachi Press Club on August 22, 2016, after which party workers chanted anti-Pakistan slogans and vandalised a media office nearby.

Before this, the MQM used to clean sweep the elections with a heavy mandate. But, the JI to some extent has filled that “vacuum” as its voters are turning out for the polls.

Our reporter was of the view that the JI’s voters would give them an edge while the delimitation would go in favour of the PPP.