KARACHI: Lashing out at the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and the Pakistan Peoples Party for their alleged corruption, Pak Sarzameen Party chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal has claimed that his party will win all seats in Sindh, particularly in Karachi and Hyderabad, in the July 25 elections.

“The era of deprivation, poverty, corruption and bad governance in Sindh is going to end soon and the Pak Sarzameen Party will win all seats in Karachi and Hyderabad which were previously won by another party,” Mr Kamal told reporters here at the City Courts on Tuesday after his appearance before election authorities for scrutiny of his nomination papers.

As the MQM has been divided into the Bahadurabad and PIB factions, Mr Kamal was quite confident about his success in the upcoming polls.

“We have a [tough] contest with the Peoples Party on two to three seats in Karachi. Except this, we have no other competition,” he said.

Mr Kamal, whose party is also active in Balochistan, also claimed that the PSP would give “surprises” in Balochistan election.

Referring to the PPP and the MQM, Mr Kamal said: “We are fighting against the parties which acquired huge sums of money through corruption. They are running their election campaign on funds meant for providing water to citizens and lifting garbage.”

He said the development funds of this city were being misused by those who controlled the Sindh government and the local government for installing big banners and party flags.

He said that both the PPP and the MQM wanted to be in power again only to usurp people’s money for the next five years.

New delimitation slammed

Referring to the provisional results of the sixth population census, Mr Kamal said that first the census results of Karachi were rigged then the Sindh government carried out “pre-poll rigging” in the delimitation of constituencies.

He said that one of the three National Assembly constituencies in Malir was made on the basis of 235,000 votes; whereas a constituency in Karachi’s South district had 410,000 voters.

He said that his struggle was for the people of Karachi irrespective of their ethnic backgrounds.

Mr Kamal said that if voted to power, his party would make Karachi a developed city as he did when he was the city mayor.

Nominations from two NA, two PA seats accepted

According to the PSP, Mr Kamal’s nomination papers from two National Assembly and as many Sindh Assembly seats have been accepted by the district returning officers concerned.

The former Karachi mayor has filed nomination papers from NA-247 — a constituency in Karachi’s district South that comprises areas of Defence, Clifton, Burnes Road, etc — and NA-253 — a constituency in Karachi’s Central district that consists of the New Karachi and North Karachi areas.

He also filed his papers on two Sindh Assembly seats — PS-124 (New Karachi) and PS-127 (Liaquatabad).

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2018