SUKKUR: A total of 149 candidates, mostly associated with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, among them Zeerak Shah, son of senior PPP leader and current federal minister Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, former Sukkur mayor Arsalan Islam Sheikh and former deputy mayor Tariq Chohan, have emerged unopposed winners in Sukkur division ahead of local government election on June 26.

More than three million registered voters will use their right to vote in the division, which comprises three districts of Sukkur, Khairpur and Ghotki.

The ruling PPP appears to be in a strong position in all the districts and is more likely to sweep the polls easily except in some areas of Sukkur district where it may face some spirited fight from Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

In some pockets of Khairpur and Ghotki districts as well, the PPP will have to fight it out with Pakistan Muslims League-Functional and

Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) candidates who may cause some trouble for the ruling party.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), 6,032 candidates are running for different LG seats in the division where number of registered voters stand at 3,080,868. Of them, 1,634,035 are male and 1,374,833 are female.

The candidates for chairmen and vice chairmen of two union councils in rural areas and chairmen and vice chairmen of four union committees in urban areas, three town councilors and 34 general councilors have won unopposed in the three districts while as many as 267 candidates have submitted forms to the ECP for the two top offices in 42 union councils and 32 union committees.

In the rural UC-17, PPP candidate Peer Bukhsh (chairman), Nadeem Akhtar (vice chairman) and Zahid Ali (district councilor) won unopposed and in UC-4, Zahoor Ahmed (chairman) and Talib Hussain (vice chairman) were declared winners unopposed.

In four union committees of Sukkur city, Anum Arsalan Sheikh (chairman) and Ali Hassan Meerani (vice chairman) won unopposed in union committee-1 Maki Shah town and in union committee 10, former Sukkur mayor Arsalan Islam Sheikh (chairman) and Murtaza Ghanghro returned unopposed.

In union committee-5 Nisar Ahmed Siddique town, Abdul Rahman Mangal (chairman) and Zeerak Shah (vice chairman), son of senior PPP leader and federal minister Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, have been declared winners unopposed while former deputy mayor Tariq Chohan (chairmen) and Abdul Rahman (vice chairman) have also returned unopposed.

In Khairpur district, out of 722 candidates, 67 contestants for top seats were declared winners unopposed while 2,974 candidates were running for other seats.

In Ghotki district, 48 candidates were declared as winners unopposed leaving 1,349 candidates in the field vying for 404 seats.

In Ghotki district, 435 polling stations had been declared sensitive, said Ghokti SSP, adding that 2,800 policemen and Rangers personnel would be deployed to maintain peace on election day.

According to the new setup, besides Sukkur Municipal Corporation, three town municipal committees consisting of 32 union committees have been formed with 42 union councils and two union committees comprising 28 wards and three town committees consisting of 17 wards in Sukkur district.

A total of 34 out of 457 candidates were declared as winners unopposed in Sukkur district while 1,736 were in still the field vying for the rest of 432 seats. In Sukkur division, a total of 149 candidates, mostly associated with PPP have returned unopposed.

Voters expressed the hope that after winning election the candidates would resolve their problems in Sukkur, Ghokti and Khairpur districts. They were expected to improve condition of NICVD in Sukkur, GIMS in Gambat and government hospitals in all three districts of the division, which lacked basic facilities compounding problems for patients as well as attendants, they said.

They said that people were compelled to consume contaminated water and contend with dysfunctional drainage system. Street crimes had increased due to absence of streetlights and adequate schooling system in the districts, they said.

They said that roads, streets and lanes were almost always seen littered with garbage and they pinned hopes on the new local governments to clean the cities and the villages of all the garbage.

They said that most of the men, women and children in the division suffered from different diseases due to a number of factors, major among them unabated discharge of poisonous waste water into Indus river and water channels.

They hoped the new LGs would resolve all the problems at local level for which they had to look up to provincial and federal authorities and their representatives would be accessible to them to settle their day to day issues.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2022