KARACHI, Sept 14: The Pakistan People’s Party is facing a tough contest from the candidates of other parties in its stronghold, Lyari.
The party has fielded former speaker of Sindh Assembly, Sardar Nabeel Gabol, to contest on NA-248, mainly comprising the 11 union councils of Lyari Town. This is the only seat in the city which the party has retained in all the previous elections. However, in the 1997 polls the party candidate Waja Karim Dad won the elections with a margin of only 300 votes against the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) candidate, Mama Yunis.
The party’s popularity graph has shown negative trends for the past many years because of indifference of senior leaders towards local problems. Disgruntled party workers blamed the senior leadership for promoting their own interests at the cost of the party. They had also apprised the party co-chairperson of their grievances. The differences surfaced once again when the party workers opposed the nomination of Nabeel Gabol and a provincial assembly candidate, Dr Salim Hingora.
The party has fielded two new faces, Dr Saleem Hingora and Advocate Rafiq Engineer, for contesting the PA-108 and 109, but the decision has satisfied the dissidents. This time the electoral scene in NA-248 has changed. Now the contest is not between the PPP and the PML(N) or the nationalists who have always opposed the PPP.
The Sindh Democratic Alliance of Imtiaz Shaikh has fielded Prof Ali Mohammed Shaheen to fight the PPP candidate. Though a new face in the electoral race without any political background, the professor commands great respect in the educated classes of Lyari. For the last several years, he has been providing free education through his coaching centres and many students of Lyari have benefited from his services doing their graduation and post-graduation.
Because of this background, Prof Shaheen has emerged as a strong candidate against Nabeel Gabol. The PPP supporters acknowledge the social influence of the professor, but they argue that since he is new in politics, will not create major dents in the traditional party vote bank.But the results of the past three elections show that the traditional vote bank of PPP has already been dented because of the inability of the senior party leaders to address the local problems during their tenures.
Senior political workers of the area expect a new trend among the Baloch voters who have been voting for the PPP since the 1970 elections. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has also fielded a Baloch candidate, Sohrab Baloch, a former government servant and social worker.
The results of the past two elections in NA-248 indicate that the MQM commands influence on the Urdu speaking population in Lyari Town. It is yet to be seen if Sohrab can influence Baloch voters by contesting from the MQM platform. The PPP (SB) has also put up its own candidate Abdul Qadir Hingora against Nabeel Gabol who enjoys the support of the Katchi community in the constituency.
The PPP vote bank has been decreasing with the passage of time, but the party has a network of workers who are well-experienced in the art of electioneering.
The Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has also fielded a candidate. There is little doubt that the religious vote will be cast in the MMA’s favour. It is also learnt that the PML-Nawaz will support the MMA candidate on this seat. The situation will be cleared after a formal understanding is reached between the two parties.
The momentum of electioneering in the area is very slow. Lack of enthusiasm is evident. Some voters believe that elections will not be held and are keeping themselves away from election activities. Another reason for lack of enthusiasm, according to a political worker, is the shortage of funds as due to the graduation condition most of the candidates belong to the middle class.
