GDA fields Mirza family in both national, provincial constituencies

Zulfiqar Mirza and Fehmida Mirza to contest from NA-229 and NA-230 respectively

HYDERABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) dissident leader Zulfiqar Mirza, his wife and former National Assembly (NA) speaker Fehmida Mirza, and their two sons will contest the upcoming general elections from Badin district against the PPP candidates.

Zulfiqar had been quite vocal against the PPP for quite some time, however, his wife and son still retained their respective NA and provincial assembly seats to which they had been elected on the PPP ticket in the last elections. The family, which recently announced to have joined Pir Pagara-led Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), filed their nominations forms for the two NA and three Sindh Assembly constituencies on Sunday and Monday.

Zulfiqar has filed his nomination papers for NA-229 Badin district, which constitutes Matli, Talhar and Tando Bago talukas, and PS-73 and PS-74 Badin district, which constitute Badin and Shaheed Fazil Rahu talukas respectively.

Meanwhile, Fehmida will contest the elections from NA-230 Badin district, from where she has thrice been elected earlier to the NA. Earlier the constituency was named NA-225 and after the new delimitations it was renamed to NA-230. She has also tentatively submitted nomination papers for PS-73.



Their son Hasnain Mirza has filed nomination papers for PS-72 Badin district which constitutes Tando Bago. It is the same constituency from where he was elected to the Sindh Assembly on the PPP ticket in 2013.

Another son of Zulfiqar and Fehmida, Hassam Mirza, has filed two nomination forms for PS-73 and PS-74. It may be noted that his father has also submitted nomination forms for both the provincial constituencies. However, according to the family sources, Hassan is likely to contest from PS-73 while Zulfiqar will contest against Ismail Rahu from PS-74.

Rahu, former Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) Sindh president, was elected from this constituency in 2013 on the PML-N ticket. However, he joined the PPP in April 2017, complaining that the PML-N had been continuously neglecting Sindh.

The GDA has still not decided about its candidates for the remaining two constituencies of the provincial assembly, PS-70 and PS-71. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has reportedly been negotiating with the GDA to win the alliance's support for PTI candidate Taj Muhammad Nizamani in PS-70 against PPP's Bashir Ahmed Halepoto.



In PS-71, Nasir Khan Nizamani, Mir Abdullah Talpur, who is an associate of Mirza, and Mir Aziz Jamali have filed their nominations. But the GDA has still not selected its candidate to take on PPP's Mir Allah Bux Talpur.

In NA-229, there will be a face-off between Zulfiqar and PPP's Mir Ghulam Ali Talpur, while Fehmida will be challenged by PPP's Haji Rasool Bux Chandio in NA-230. Hasnain, meanwhile, will be vying against Syed Ali Bux Shah alias Pappu Shah in PS-72. For PS-73, the PPP has given ticket to Taj Muhammad Mallah.

Former PPP MNA who was elected from NA-229, Sardar Kamal Khan Chang has filed nominations as an independent candidate after he was denied the party ticket. He filed forms for NA-230, PS-73 and PS-74 constituencies.