The vote count for local body elections in Karachi took much longer than expected. However, one outcome became clear immediately and has only grown stronger as the process went on: the Jamaat e Islami is a solid contender for Karachi’s crown.

According to the latest count, the party only trails behind the Pakistan People’s Party by only three seats in Karachi’s City Council. In all probability, it will have a say in who the city’s mayor becomes. To check out the results in detail, look at our in-depth coverage.

But with the JI’s resurgence in a city represented by the PTI and MQM-P in the assembly and governed by the PPP in principle, it is worth looking at how the JI ran its campaign and presented itself as the solution to the political vaccuum in Karachi.

The campaign’s success came down to three factors.

Making local bodies its cause

The Jamaat-e-Islami’s first strategy was to position itself as the only political party interested in Karachi’s welfare. It aggressively promoted the cause of the city’s local elections. It even wound up in a defamation suit with the Election Commission, after the commission said that the JI had asked for the elections to be delayed.

In response, the JI sent the ECP a defamation notice saying that it had asked for a delay in a by-election for the National Assembly and the ECP would have to pay Rs500 million unless it retracted its allegations.

The party relentlessly pressed for elections and lambasted the ECP and Sindh government for delaying them.

When the Sindh government wrote to the ECP for a delay over security concerns, the JI threatened to stage a sit-in or dharna in front of the commission. The threat was only called off after ECP said the elections would go on as scheduled.

Even when polling began and delays took place in counts across the city, the party stayed alert. It chased up the verification of Form 11, which won them two more seats in Safoora Goth and Orangi Town which were originally announced as PPP victories.

Even after the elections were over (at least polling), the party kept up a noisy offensive, making sure that its party position was to be factored in. The result was the PPP itself reached out and offered to allay JI’s concerns about the vote. Leaders of both parties even appeared together at a press conference on January 19, proving that the JI’s campaign and election performance was good enough to earn them a seat at the table.

Going beyond their image as a religious party

The party seems to have taken care to ensure that their campaign, especially their media campaigns, focused on Karachi’s civic issues and not just on their identity as a religious party.

Not to discount the efforts made by volunteers on the ground for their door to door campaign, but Jamaat-e-Islami went above and beyond its image as a religious party that campaigns through a community that has had its allegiance for generations. They turned to more unconventional mediums.

Through an energetic social media campaign, not only did they ensure maximum visibility for every nook and corner visit, every press conference and every announcement, they also made a point to disseminate information especially targeted towards younger people.

The party focused on setting up profiles of senior leaders such as the Karachi chapter’s president. It also adopted a new name for its volunteers ‘Team Tarazu’. It also posted videos about the state of Karachi and comparisons with an old JI mayor’s tenure.

The party also got influencers to support its cause in the city, except these influencers were not who you would normally associate with a religious party. The most widely circulated video showed actor Behroze Sabzwari praising Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman in glowing terms.

“A leader should be strong,” Sabzwari says.

The party also sent SMSes to voters reminding them to register on time and vote to ensure maximum mobilisation and outreach.

Building the image of a leader

The campaign’s success also depended on a larger-than-life image of the JI’s mayoral candidate, Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman.

He started to amp up his presence on social media, especially last year, to cultivate a persona of a man who can take care of business but who is close to community. Most of all, Hafiz Naeem tried to present himself as a people’s man who was aware of the city’s issues and would show up where needed.

For example, when a 23-year-old man was gunned down in Korangi a month before the election, Hafiz Naeem was not just present, he led the funeral prayers himself.

He was even seen presenting sweets to Sarfraz Ahmed after his recent run-scoring spree. Sarfraz is a cricketer synonymous with Karachi and recently made a big comeback. But Karachi’s fight in cricket politics is a discussion for another time.

It is worth noting that the JI operates in tandem with Alkhidmat foundation. Like Edhi and Chippa, the foundation helps to bolster the public service infrastructure in a city that needs all the help it can get. The goodwill bolsters his public image since Hafiz Naeem is also the president of Alkhidmat’s Karachi chapter.

The party even gave its mayor candidate the fan cam treatment.

“Bhaagnay nahi dengay,” Hafiz Naeem, clad in a leather jacket says in the video, referring to delays in election. The song in the background is ‘Karachi Chal’ by Young Stunners, a hip hop duo.