PPP, Muttahida hoping to reclaim their lost paradise of NA-239, NA-240 respectively

National Assembly constituency NA-239 South I comprises the old city area of Lyari including Moosa Lane, Agra Taj Colony, Baghdadi, Bihar Colony, Hangorabad, Khadda, Eido Lane, Nayabad, Kalri, Daryabad, Kalakot, Hazara Colony, New Kumarwara, Rexerlane and Chakiwara.

In the last general elections, the constituency was named NA-246 South-1 and won by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Shakoor Shad with 53,029 votes defeating Pakistan People Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari who secured 39,347 votes in one of the biggest upsets of the polls. Bilawal was even not the runner-up and came third in what was considered the traditional seat of the PPP that was also won by his Benazir Bhutto and father Asif Ali Zardari in the 1988 and 1990 elections respectively.

The Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) candidate, Ahmed Bux, was the runner-up from Lyari in the 2018 elections with 42,377 votes. Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal candidate Maulana Noor Haq was also able to poll a considerable 33,220 votes.

In the 2013 elections, the constituency was won by the PPP’s Shahjahan Baloch with 84,530 votes.

The Pakistan People Party Parliamentarian (PPPP), the electoral wing of the PPP, has now fielded Sardar Nabeel Ahmed Gabol who won from the Lyari constituency in 2002 and 2008 on the PPPP’s ticket but left the party and joined the Muttahida Qaumi Movement before the 2013 elections. Gabol, however, re-joined the PPP in 2017.

In the 1993 and 1997 elections, the PPP’s Waja Ahmed Karim Dad Baloch was the returned candidate from this seat.

Shad, who won the last elections on the PTI’s ticket, had been disgruntled even before the state’s wrath on the PTI. He has formed the Lyari Alliance and is again contesting the elections as an independent candidate.

The PTI has announced its support for its local leader Yasir Baloch. The other contestants include the TLP’s Mohammad Shirjil Goplani, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan’s Maulana Noorul Haq, Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Fazalur Rehman Niazi and Grand Democratic Alliance’s (GDA) Shaista Ameer besides other 11 independent candidates. The overall population of the constituency is 783,497 with 422,081 registered voters including 233,087 men and 188,994 women.

The Election Commission of Pakistan has set up 181 polling stations in NA-239. So far, peaceful election campaigns of various political parties and independent candidates have been witnessed in the constituency with no violence.

NA-240

NA-240 South II, which includes the areas of Kaghazi Bazaar, Saeed Manzil, Khori Garden, City Courts, Ranchore Line, Kharadar, Nishtar Road, Garden West, Ghazi Nagar and their adjoining areas, had been merged with the Lyari constituency NA-246 in the last general elections.

This time, these areas have again been separated in a separate constituency. Before the 2018 elections, this constituency was named NA-249, which was won four times by the MQM-P’s Dr Farooq Sattar in the 1988, 1990, 2008 and 2013 elections. The late Dr Amir Liaquat Hussain of the MQM won from these areas in the 2002 elections.

The PPP’s Abdul Aziz Memon had claimed the seat in 1993 but it was reclaimed by the MQM’s Babar Ghori in the 1997 polls. This constituency has a total population of 782,762 with 385,971 registered voters, including 210,741 men and 175,230 women. The MQM-P has now fielded former Karachi deputy mayor Arshad Vohra in NA-240 while the PPPP has awarded its ticket to Saleem Mandviwalla. The JI’s Syed Abdul Rasheed and the TLP’s Syed Zaman Ali Jaffery are also strong contenders along with the PTI-backed independent candidate former MPA Ramzan Ghanchi. Three provincial assembly constituencies — PS-106, PS-107 and PS-108 —fall in NA-239 and NA-240.