September 16, 2002	Monday	Rajab 8, 1423

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THATTA, Sept 15: Electioneering has gained momentum here following appearance of final contestants after withdrawal of remaining candidates for the two national and five provincial assembly seats of Thatta district.

For NA-237, Thatta-I, former MNA Baboo Ghulam Hussain Memon and Imtiaz Qureshi of the Pakistan People’s Party and Ghulam Fatima Palijo, sister of Awami Tehrik chief Rasool Bux Palijo, withdrew nominations in favour of the PPP candidate, Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro.

For the same seat, Karim Dino Shirazi and Manzoor Shirazi have withdrawn their nominations in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q candidate, Ayaz Ali Shirazi.

Ayaz, a new entrant in Thatta politics, has personally very little influence among the voters but he will utilise the influence of his father and Sindh irrigation minister, Ajaz Ali Shirazi, and that of his uncle and Thatta district Nazim, Shafqat Hussain Shirazi.

Dr Wahid enjoys a good influence among the voters as he had been twice elected MPA.

A tough competition is expected among the two candidates.

Maulana Ahmed Soomro of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal and Syed Meher Ali Shah of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement are also candidates in this constituency.

For NA-238 Thatta-II, former MNA Mohammad Ali Malkani, who recently deserted the PPP and joined the Shirazi group, is pitched against the PPP contestant, former MNA Arbab Wazir Ahmed Memon.

Irrespective of their affiliations, both of the candidates have their vote banks in the Jat and Memon communities, hence an interesting contest is expected between them.

Baboo Ghulam Hussain has opted this time to contest from PS- 84 and Dr Wahid Soomro, Tufail Memon and Fatima Palijo have withdrawn their nominations in his favour.

Baboo is facing Shirazi group’s candidate, Syed Manzoor Hussain Shah.

The other important candidate from this constituency is Gul Mohammad Khushk of the MQM.

In the coastal constituency of PS-85, former PPP MPA Ghulam Qadir Palijo’s daughter Sassui Palijo is contesting on the PPP ticket.

Despite being a new comer in Thatta’s political arena, Sassui is fast becoming popular among her voters owing to her hard work and her father’s political influence in the area.

The other main contestants in this constituency are Hanif Saboogar, Karim Dino Shah, Syed Ayaz Shah and Ms Kausar Jokhio.

From PS-88 Ghorabari, former MNA Haji Usman Jalbani is confronting Karim Dino Shirazi.

From PS-84 Haji Usman Malkani of the Shirazi group is the main contestant against Pir Rehmani of the PPP.

From PS-86 former chief engineer, Kotri Barrage, Haji Shams, PPP, is contesting against his rival Shirazi group’s candidate Ayaz Shah.

Over all the PPP’s main rival is the Shirazi group, whose members have been elected for four consecutive tenures as independent candidates as well as through the PPP and PML-N platform.

The group had swept the local bodies elections throughout the district last year.

For the Oct elections, the Shirazi family has fielded members of its young generation.

Meanwhile, a renowned poet of lower Sindh, Sarwaich Sujawali, who is one of the founder members of the PPP, announced his decision to join the Shirazi group at his village Sarwaich Nagar on Saturday.

He had recently been paralysed and is facing acute financial crisis.