PPP withdraws from NA-245 by-election in favour of MQM-P

Saeed Ghani says all parties will contest local bodies elections as usual

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has withdrawn its candidate for the NA-245 by-elections in favour of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) in line with a decision taken by the federal ruling coalition.

The withdrawal of Danish Khan's candidature for the National Assembly constituency was announced by Sindh Minister of Labour and Manpower Saeed Ghani, who is also PPP's Karachi Division president, in a video statement on Friday.

He said that the PPP has withdrawn from the NA-245 by-election after a decision by all allied parties in the federal government.

The allies in the federal coalition government have decided that the party which was runner-up in the last general elections in this constituency would contest the forthcoming by-election, while other allies would fully support its candidate.

After this decision, the PPP has withdrawn its candidate for NA-245, Ghani said in the video statement along with Danish Khan.

He clarified that this decision was specific to the NA-245 by-election being held on August 21 and that it would not be applicable to the second phase of local bodies elections in Sindh scheduled for August 28. All the parties would be fielding their candidates in the LB polls as usual, he added.

On the occasion, Danish Khan said that he accepted and supported the decision of the party's top leadership. He said when he joined the PPP one month ago, it was unconditional and when the party leadership asked him to contest the by-election, he accepted it and now he withdrew from the race on the instructions of the party's leadership.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2022.