LARKANA, April 7: Ten political parties formed an electoral alliance — mainly against the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) — after reaching an initial agreement on seat adjustment.

The agreement came in a meeting chaired by Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI) general secretary former senator Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro at Jamia Islamia here on Sunday. The JUI-F hosted the meeting of representatives from the allied parties — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional, Jamaat-i-Islami, Sunni Tehreek, Sindh United Party, Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party, Qaumi Awami Tehreek, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan and the National Peoples Party — and finalised arrangements for adjustment on nine National Assembly and 18 Sindh Assembly seats of Larkana division.

The only seat on which adjustment was yet to be agreed upon was NA-209 Kashmor, it emerged after the meeting, which decided to field joint candidates on all other seats in the division.

Dr Soomro said that a decision on NA 209 would be taken in the Tuesday meeting of the alliance to be held in Karachi. The JI, PML-F and JUI had reservations over the seat, he added.

Dr Soomro told journalists that the names of joint candidates for nine NA and 18 PA seats would be announced after the Karachi meeting.

He expressed his confidence that the PPP would face defeat in the coming elections and pointed out that the PPP-MQM alliance broke down when the controversial local government law was repealed by the PPP under immense public pressure. He, however, apprehended that the two parties might regroup “for their common designs” and in such a case reintroduction of the law could not be ruled out.

The JUI leader claimed that more than 10,000 people were killed within a year’s period in Karachi while the coalition was ruling over the province.