The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) announced a sit-in at Fawara Chowk near the Karachi Press Club from February 12 to protest against local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad. Convenor Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui said that his party would fight for Karachi’s case from February 12 and added that the economy will sink politics. He also announced that his party would contest and win the upcoming by-polls in Karachi. MQM-P boycotted the second phase of local bodies elections in seven districts of Sindh, including Karachi and Hyderabad, due to rigged polls. The party’s boycott allowed the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) to win majority of the seats in the elections.