You know it's election season when Karachi manages to grab the attention of big time politicians. The oft-ignored port city is the federation's biggest bread-winner by a country mile but rarely ever sees A-list lawmakers fight for its constituencies.

This has, however, changed this time. After Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Imran Khan announced that they will contest the upcoming elections from Karachi — among other places — now comes the news that PML-N supremo Shahbaz Sharif is planning to do the same. In fact, the younger Sharif will contest 2018 polls from not one, not two but three Karachi constituencies.

The trio or those heading their parties before them never paid much attention to Karachi before because of MQM's airtight stranglehold on the metropolis. However, this MQM is not that MQM, and so it's open season in Karachi. Anyone and everyone's ready to try their luck.

Dawn reports that in addition to the aforesaid three, Karachi will also see tier 2 leaders such as former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, MQM leader (or not) Farooq Sattar and Pak Sarzameen Party chief Mustafa Kamal enter polls.

What a time to be alive!