GDA’s politicking gains pace as election looms

The alliance is trying to recruit political heavyweights to counter PPP in Sindh

KARACHI:

With the election schedule now announced and candidates scurrying to get their nomination papers in, an old electoral alliance has once again become active in Sindh to counter the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The political party of the Pir of Pagaro, the Pakistan Muslim League Functional (PML-F), along with other Sindh based political parties, have once again decided to jointly participate in the upcoming election from the platform of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA).

Apart from the PML-F, the GDA, which came into being in 2017, comprises regional parties like Qaumi Awami Tehreek, Sindh National Front, Pakistan Peoples Party Workers, Pakistan Peoples Party Shaheed Bhutto, and the National Peoples Party. And all of them have the same shared objective, like they did back in the 2018 general election, of countering the PPP’s influence in the province.

Read ECP to receive nomination papers today

Safdar Abbasi, the General Secretary of the GDA, talking to the Express Tribune, about this objective, said that all the parties in the alliance would contest on the same electoral symbol in the upcoming general election. “We are uniting once again as we did in 2018,” remarked Abbasi. While it remains to be seen whether the GDA will be able to dent the PPP’s popularity in the province, it is pertinent to mention that the party managed to grab 14 Sindh Assembly seats and 3 National Assembly seats in the 2018 general election.

Nevertheless, this time around the GDA might face an uphill battle as two key members of the alliance, who won seats for the GDA in the 2018 election, Ali Gohar Mehar from Ghotki and Ghous Baksh Mehar from Shikarpur, along with their families, have joined the PPP.

However, as per sources, the GDA is fast at work to fill the void that Ali Gohar Mehar and Ghous Baksh Mehar have left behind. In that regard, the alliance is presently talking to influential families and also individuals who have been associated with the PPP in the past and are angry with the present leadership. Amongst these individuals is Syed Ali Nawaz Shah, of Mirpur Khas, who won the National Assembly seat as an independent candidate in the 2018 general elections.

Read more PML-N demands two more days for filing papers

Similarly, the GDA leadership has also contacted the former Nazim of Tando Allahyar District, Rahila Magsi, whose brother Irfan Gul Magsi joined the PPP a few years back.

According to sources familiar with the matter, the GDA, through the Pir of Pagaro, has also held meetings with former chief minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim; and it is now expected that Dr Rahim will join the GDA soon. It is also pertinent to mention that recently another former chief minister, Liaquat Jatoi, has joined the GDA but whether that will have any bearing on Dr Rahim joining the alliance remains to be seen.

Nevertheless, Muneer Saqi, a senior journalist, who has a keen eye on Sindh’s politics, believes that the GDA’s efforts to woo electoral heavyweights might not be enough to dent the PPP’s popularity. “There is no strong political force against the PPP in Sindh yet, at best the GDA, like in the last election, will manage to win some seats in the upcoming election,” predicted Saqi while talking to The Express Tribune

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22^nd, 2023.