LARKANA: The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F (JUI-F) on Sunday reaffirmed its resolve to give a tough time to the Pakistan Peoples Party in the by-election for the NA-204 Larkana and NA-213 Nawabshah from where PPP’s chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, respectively, intend to contest.

However, the JUI-F offered olive branch to Moazzam Ali Abbasi of the PPP-Workers saying that it would fully support him if he was ready to contest for the Larkana seat.

Sindh JUI-F general secretary Allama Rashid Mehmood Soomro, along with his senior party colleague Qari Mohammed Usman, told a press conference at the Jamia Islamia Isha’atul Quran wa Hadees here on Sunday that his party’s provincial executive committee at its recent meeting in Sukkur had finalised his [Rashid Soomro’s] and Maulana Abdul Qayoom Halejvi’s names for the NA-204 and NA 213 by-polls, respectively. However, he said, the JUI-F was ready to extend all support to Moazzam Abbasi if came forward to stand against Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

Accompanied by his brother and party’s Larkana district chief Maulana Nasir Mehmood Soomro and other leaders, Rashid Soomro said the JUI-F would not leave the field open to the PPP. “We are in touch with other political and religious parties as well to hand a defeat to the PPP leaders,” he said, adding: “We are going to have meetings with Sindh National Front chairman Sardar Mumtaz Ali Bhutto and PPP-Shaheed Bhutto chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto, too, with a view to field a consensus candidate against the PPP chairman.”

In reply to a question, the JUI-F leader said if Mr Abbasi did not welcome the offer, he would be requested to support the consensus candidate against Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

“If I will contest against him, I will fight with a firm commitment and will not withdraw [from the contest] even if my party chief asked me to do so,” Rashid Soomro said, recalling that his father, Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, had been contesting against [slain PPP chairperson] Benazir Bhutto on NA-207 in the past.

He also recalled that Asif Zardari’s sister, MNA Faryal Talpur had repeated stated in the recent past to vacate her seat whenever Bilawal wished to seek a National Assembly seat. “It would have been better for him to contest on his mother’s seat — NA-207 — currently occupied by MNA Talpur,” said Rashid Soomro.

Acknowledging that it was a contest against the top PPP leadership, the JUI-F leaders said they knew that they were going to fight against the ‘state machinery’ “but it doesn’t mean we should escape from the front”. In the wake of the recent by-election in Shikarpur, the JUI-F emerged as the strong alternative to the PPP in Sindh, they said, adding that their party’s executive committee, therefore, decided not to let any seat go uncontested. It also decided to fully and actively participate in the JUI-F’s centenary celebrations being held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from April 7 to 9.

The NA-204 Larkana seat is being vacated by Ayaz Soomro and NA-213 Nawabshah by Dr Azra Pechuho to effect by-elections on both seats after Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Asif Ali Zardari made a formal announcement to become members of the National Assembly while addressing a programme held in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh Bhutto to observe the 9th death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto on Dec 27 last year.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2017