Zardari, Bilawal to get no walkover in by-polls

KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari will not get any walkover in upcoming by-elections of Shahdadkot’s NA-204 and Nawabshah’s NA-123 as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Jamait Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and a nationalist party, Sindh United Party, have decided to contest the by-elections.

The two seats, NA-204 of Qambar-Shahdadkot Larkana division and NA-123 of Nawabshah (Shaheed Benzirabad) were vacated by former Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro and Azra Pechoho, sister of Asif Zardari on December 28 as Asif Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced to contest elections.

PTI chief Imran Khan, JUI-F General Secretary Maulana Rashid Soomro and SUP Chairman Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah have announced fielding their candidates against Asif Zardari and Bilawal in both the constituencies.

PTI sources informed that party chairman Imran Khan himself launched election campaign against both father and son.

PTI Central Information Secretary Zulifqar Halipoto told The News that due to the policies of PPP, Sindh had been destroyed and people of Sindh were looking for a better alternative and in the leadership of Imran Khan, PTI was capable of becoming an alternative force in the province.

Mr Halipoto said it had been decided in principle to field candidates from both the areas.

Roshan Buriro, General Secretary Sindh United Party, confirmed fielding of his party candidates from both the constituencies.

According to Mr Buriro, the people of Sindh have been fed up with PPP and nationalists are the alternatives.

This reporter tried his best to get the point of view of Sindh JUI-F leader Maulana Rashid Soomro, called many times at his cell number and sent him text messages but till the filing of this story Mr Soomro did not convey his view point.

Pakistan People’s Party leader Imtiaz Shaikh who had recently won the by-election from Shikarpur told The News that there were no chances of any candidate to win by-elections except that of PPP. Both the seats would be won by PPP chairman and co-chairman with big margin, added Mr Shaikh.

Prominent political analyst Ali Qazi told The News that before analysing the upcoming by-elections, they should keep in mind the results of general elections and recent by-election of Shikarpur; anti-PPP vote in Qambar shahdadkot (NA 204) was above 80,000 and Ayaz Soomro could get only 52,000 votes while in Nawabshah anti-PPP vote was around 50,000 and in Shikarpur by-election anti-PPP vote was 27,000 plus and JUI-F candidate Rashid Soomro who belonged to Larkana and was alien to people had bagged more votes than his rival PPP candidate Imtiaz Sheikh in Shikarpur city.

Replying to a question whether rival parties are in position to give tough time to the PPP chairman and the co-chairman, Mr Qazi said that it depended on the contesting parties how they would mobilise the anti-ppp vote.

Mr Qazi concluded that PTI had potential to give tough time to PPP.

In the 2013 general elections, Mr Soomro won from the NA-204 constituency with 50,128 votes, while the PML-Functional’s Mahtab Akbar Rashidi and Moazzam Ali Khan, an independent candidate, had secured 32,006 and 28,745 votes respectively.

The PPP-Shaheed Bhutto’s chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto was also a contestant but she received 4,936 votes.

Dr Pechuho had won from the NA-213 constituency with 113,119 votes. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Inayat Ali Rind had won 33,874 votes and the PML-F’s Syed Zahid Hussain Shah had secured 25,223 votes.