All aboard: PPP names its ticket holders in Sindh

List of contestants from Thatta and Karachi withheld.


Hafeez Tunio April 11, 2013
Faryal Talpur, sister of President Zardari

KARACHI:


Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) officially announced the candidates contesting for most of the national and provincial assembly seats in Sindh, but did not make public the names of ticketholders in Thatta and Karachi.


The lists of both the districts were also ready, but were withheld without citing any reason.

The decision by Shirazi group to part ways with the PPP seems to be the reason in Thatta, but there was no plausible reason for deferring the announcement about Karachi candidates who have already been nominated by the parliamentary board of Sindh headed by Faryal Talpur, sister of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Former Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who is also PPP president of Sindh chapter, revealed the final list of party candidates for the May 11 election at a press conference on Tuesday.

Shah did not name the candidates for the nine provincial assembly seats in Kamber Shahdadkot, Hyderabad, Badin, Tando Allahyar, Jamshoro and Dadu districts. He said that some aspiring candidates from these areas have been disqualified for a variety of reasons and their cases are pending before the court; therefore they are indecisive.

The party had allotted the provincial assembly ticket of PS 40- Kamabar Shahdadkot to Nadir Magsi and PS 73-Jamshoro to Murad Ali Shah, but the decision is put in abeyance as the former has been disqualified over the fake degree issue and the latter had featured in a dual nationality case.

Gender discrimination

Out of 39 candidates contesting the National Assembly election on general seats, PPP has only allotted four seats to women. They are Faryal Talpur (NA 207- Kamber Shahdadkot-Larkana), Azra Fazal Pechoho (NA 213-Shaheed Benazirabad), Dr Fahmida Mirza (NA 255 Badin) and Shazia Atta Marri (NA 235-Sanghar).

However, not a single seat has been allotted to women contesting general elections for Sindh Assembly. The party sources said that only one seat has been allotted to Sassui Palijo to contest general elections from Thatta, but a final decision is still awaited.

Minorities

The party has not allotted any National Assembly seat to minority representatives to contest the general election, but two provincial assembly seats have been given to Dr Gian Chand and Dr Mahesh Malani who will contest the election from Diplo and Mithi of Tharparkar district, respectively.

According to senior party leadership they would accommodate the minority and women representatives in the provincial assembly and parliament by nominating them on reserved seats.

“Our party does not believe in gender and religious discrimination,” Sharjeel Memon said.

The party tickets are awarded to wining candidates without regard to their gender and religion, he said. Women and minorities will be accommodated on reserved seats, he said.

Old guard

Most of the old guard of PPP have been given the national and provincial assembly seats. The Mahar family of Ghotki district that was earlier affiliated with PML-Q but joined PPP a few months ago also got one national assembly and two provincial assembly tickets. The two former leaders of PML-Q including Altaf Unar and Sardar Chandio who joined PPP have also been given provincial assembly seats (PS 35 Larkana) and (PS 42 Warrah).

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11th, 2013.

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