KARACHI, April 19: The Inspector General of Police, Sindh, has directed senior hierarchy in the department to take necessary pre-emptive security measures to protect the lives of 27 politicians who are taking part in the upcoming general elections, it emerged on Friday.

In a ‘most immediate’ communiqué, a copy of which has been obtained by Dawn, the Sindh IGP office informed all top officials in Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Larkana and Sukkur ranges, Crime Investigation Department and Special Branch Sindh about the personalities under threat.

Of the 27 personalities, 14 belong to the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarian (PPPP) with the most prominent among them being former chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who is a candidate on PS-29 Khairpur. Next to him is his daughter Dr Nafeesa Shah, who is a PPPP candidate on a National Assembly’s reserved seat for women.

Other PPPP candidates are: Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah (NA-199), Jam Mehtab Dahar (PS-05), Ahmed Ali Khan Pitafi (PS-07), Syed Faiz Ali Shah (NA-217), Syed Bachal Shah (PS-30), Munawar Hussain Wasan, Naeem Ahmed Kharal (PS-34), Asghar Ali Shah (NA-212), Sarfaraz Hussain Shah (PS-21), Feroze Ahmed Jamali (PS-23), Abdullah Sattar Abbasi (PS-22) and Abdul Haq Bhurt (PS-20).

Five of the candidates included in the list belonged to the National People’s Party. They are: Shahriyar Shah (PS-05), Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi (NA-211), Ghulam Rasool Jatoi (PS-19), Masroor Ahmed Jatoi (PS-23) and Arif Mustafa Jatoi (PS-22).

Abdullah Mutahiri (NA-198) and Ali Bakhsh Sajadi (NA-199) belonged to the Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) while their rivals on the same constituencies respectively, Qari Attaullah Rehmani and Mohammad Ramzan Naumani belonged to the Muttahida Deeni Mahaz.The list also includes the name of Pir Mohammad Shah of the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, whose constituency has not been mentioned.

The other three candidates are: Syed Zafar Ali Shah (NA-212) of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Nadir Akmal Leghari (PS-07) of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and Rashid Shah Rashidi (PS-30) of the PML-Functional.

Sources in the provincial home department said that the list of the abovementioned 27 politicians was the first of ‘a few more’ such lists, which are being prepared by the security apparatus in light of the threat perception they detect. The criteria for the threat perception included intelligence reports, complaints from politicians and sensitivity of the area where they were contesting elections, the sources added.