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Citizens Get Up Close With the Vision of Four Candidates

July 14, 2018

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Rhetoric, accusations, promises and recriminations flew thickand fast across The Second Floor (T2F) on Thursday at the 'Meet YourCandidates' event organised to engage some of the candidates contesting thegeneral elections with Karachiites.

As all candidates came together to discuss theissues that Karachi faces--water crisis, electricity, sewage, security andinfrastructure - the records of each of the contesting parties was bought upand the moderator, Arieb Azhar, kept political bickering from derailing the proceedingsby sticking to a tight schedule.

The event page had advertised the meet-up tolast for two hours from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. However, out of the four candidatesscheduled to speak, independent candidate Jibran Nasir contesting from NA-247and PS-111, Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Afnan Ullah Khancontesting from NA-247 and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Qadir KhanMandokhail contesting from NA-249 arrived on time while PakistanTehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Imran Ismail contesting from PS-111 walked inat 7:30pm, saying that he "didn't expect the event to start on time."

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Khan started the session by highlighting what hefelt were the achievements of his party over the last five years. The PML-Ncandidate spoke about his party's role in launching the Karachi operation. Hethen moved on to the issue of a lack of drinking water in Karachi and used thisrhetoric to establish his claim to represent the NA-247 constituency. Khanended his pitch by bringing up Punjab's Dolphin Force as a possible model todeal with the remaining spate of street crimes in Karachi.

Drinking water and the lack of it became anissue throughout the discussion as every politician, except Nasir mentioned howdesalination plants needed to be built to deal with the issue. When Nasirbought up the issue of the tanker mafia and how no political party confrontsthem or how, "Our basic rights are being privatised," he was met witha tepid response by the other panellists, besides Khan.

The moderator bought the event around todiscussion of judicial reform and a critical view of the judiciary. While allcandidates, save Ismail, gave their criticism of the judiciary, Nasir andMandokhail demanded judicial reform, prison reform and the provision of freelegal aid, especially to vulnerable groups in society, such as children, womenand persons with disabilities.

Nasir was constantly under fire for hisindependent candidacy by other panellists. He insisted though that Karachineeds a strong opposition and that he will start small but build up to a largerpolitical formation.  The gathered politicians kept saying that he [Nasir]can't do anything without a party to which he replied, "I am one manwithout a party and the other candidates are one-man parties."

Answering a question on why his nominationpapers listed that he hasn't paid tax for 2017, Khan said that he is the chiefexecutive officer of international security firm TelsecCo and invests most ofhis income back into the business. In Pakistan's law, there is no declarationof profits or tax policy on foreign income, he added. Khan's income for 2017was shown under 'inheritance share' in his nomination papers.

The PTI's Ismail took a number of mercurialstances throughout the evening. When he was not lambasting the gatheredparties, he descended into ultra-nationalism, diverting conversations away fromdiscussions on vital issues, such as missing persons. He would also alternatebetween bringing up people's religious sensitivities and then speak about howthe blasphemy law is misused.

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Khan accused the PTI of already making dealswith the establishment. However, in a moment of frustration, as Khan listed thecorruption of the PPP and the political fantasies of the PTI, he asked theaudience for their vote, which if they could not give to him, should be givento Nasir. This was met by rapturous applause in the room. Khan said that atleast Nasir has his tale of struggle to present to the people, which is betterthan handing the city over to people attached to "drug mafias" or"Aman committees."

The event was packed with a young, professionallooking audience and consisted of some very enthusiastic adults. The interestdisplayed by the audience and participants shows that there is an appetite forsuch illuminating political events in future.

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