KARACHI, May 12: The May 11 elections brought at least three Sindhi nationalist parties into mainstream politics, which fielded their candidates on both the national and provincial assembly seats mainly relying on a slogan against the Pakistan Peoples Party, though none of them made it to the highest public forum as unofficial results declared so far suggest.

Sindhi nationalist parties have had their own brand of love-hate relation with the country’s electoral politics since the first elections in 1970, in which a reluctant G.M. Syed decided to contest against PPP’s Malik Sikandar Khan on a Dadu seat as a candidate of the erstwhile Sindh United Front.

The late Mr Syed had been a known lawmaker in the pre-partition era and was among those who had drafted the resolution of a separate Muslim state to be carved out from the British India in the Sindh Assembly before he turned a Sindhi nationalist to inspire generations.

He bagged just over 10,000 votes on his party symbol, a walking stick, and stood third with the PPP candidate securing over 51,000 votes.

For Mr Syed it was the last time he contested an election. Others followed him until the 1988 elections when Rasool Bakhsh Palijo decided to contest against PPP’s Babu Ghulam Hussain on a Thatta NA seat as a candidate of the Awami National Party and lost it by 43,000 votes.

Both G.M. Syed and Mr Palijo contested against the PPP candidates when the party was phenomenally swallowing its opponents. In 1970, it had just emerged and swept the then whole West Pakistan and in 1988, it enjoyed a huge sympathy wave as those were the first elections after 11 years of Gen Ziaul Haq’s dictatorial rule.

Dr Qadir Magsi, who now heads the Sindh Taraqqipasand Party (STP), contested as a candidate of the United National Alliance (UNA) on the same seat and against the same PPP candidate against whom Mr Palijo had contested, and met with the same fate. However, his margin of defeat was more than 20,000 votes in a low-turnout contest.

Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah, a grandson of the late Syed, was the only nationalist candidate who ultimately won a provincial assembly seat from Dadu in 1997. However, he had contested as an independent candidate and had support of most anti-PPP forces in the region.

However, the 2013 elections are different to the fact that it has brought three Sindhi nationalist parties in full while many other Sindhi nationalist individuals and groups supported them.

The parties, which contested the elections were the Sindh United Party (SUP), Qaumi Awami Tehrik (QAT) and STP.

The SUP is headed by Jalal Shah and QAT’s chief is Ayaz Latif Palijo, whose father Rasool Bakhsh Palijo had contested from Thatta 25 years ago.

The parties were also part of an ‘understanding’ among 10 parties, which included the PML-N, PML-F and Jamaat-i-Islami.

The prominent nationalists who contested the elections were Jalal Shah, his brother Zain Shah, Ayaz Latif Palijo and his partyman Sartaj Chandio, who contested against powerful PPP candidates in Jamshoro, Nawabshah, Hyderabad and Kambar, respectively.

Dr Magsi did not contest election this time, but his STP fielded Prof Rajab Ali Memon, a former vice chancellor of the Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam, and Haider Shahani for a national and a provincial assembly seat in Hyderabad.

All these contestants have lost by large margins. Mr Palijo is in the state of denial in accepting the results and says his party will protest over the results.

However, analysts accuse Sindhi nationalists that instead of coming up with their own agenda they kept relying on anti-PPP rhetoric.

“A slogan for the sake of nationalism and against the PPP is not just enough,” said Dr Jaffer Ahmed, a professor at the Pakistan Study Centre, University of Karachi.

“Sindhi nationalists will have to have a clear stance vis-à-vis economic conditions and Sindh’s relations with the federation and they should have a realistic worldview as it was held by their predecessor Saeen G.M. Syed,” said Dr Ahmed.

He said the nationalist leaders of Sindh should make their assessment as how close their views were with realpolitik and should just not make the criteria that those who are against the PPP were their friends.

He said Sindhi nationalism had traditionally had grievances against the centre and Punjab, but now the nationalists had got closer to Nawaz Sharif, who was mainly representing Punjab.

“Their decision to become a part of the 10-party alliance was premature and haphazard.”

He appreciated their joining the mainstream politics, but said the PPP was representing the Sindhi middle class as well, because, no matter how insignificant, the party was delivering to some extent and nationalist parties had not developed that capacity within themselves so far.