PPP will securetwo-thirds of NA seats from Sindh: Murad

Says party faces no major electoral challenge in most districts of province

HYDERABAD:

The Pakistan Peoples Party  (PPP),  which is looking forward to forming the federal government with the support of the independent candidates, hopes to win two-third of  some 60 constituencies of the National  Assembly in Sindh.

The  former Sindh Chief  Minister Syed  Murad  Ali  Shah at a press conference  in Hyderabad observed that the party faced  no major electoral challenge  in most districts of  the province. He appealed to the  people of Karachi and  Hyderabad not to be duped by a political party, a reference  to Muttahida Qaumi Movement -  Pakistan (MQM-P), which  always  remained  a  part of the government but  it  sidelined  itself a  few months  before  completion of that government’s tenure.

 “It  has remained  their  practice that they side- step  from  power  two  to three  months  before the elections so that they can  fool the public.” He said that MQM-P used to level accusations  against  the officials  of  Election Commission of  Pakistan (ECP) in Sindh for being  partisan in  favour of the PPP during the past elections, adding that  the same line of criticism is being followed during  the ongoing campaign.

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“Those  who  fear [elec- toral]  defeat hide behind  such excuses”, he said. According to him, the candidates of PPP have  also conveyed their apprehensions and objections to the ECP  with  regard  to   the selection of the  polling stations in Hyderabad  and  in other parts of  the province.

But, he said, despite  their objections they are  going ahead with the elec- tion campaign. Shah reiterated his party’s concern over Election  Management  System  (EMS) software of the ECP, recalling  that  a similar  software dubbed  as  result  transmission system (RTS) had  failed  in  2018  and it ended up favouring  Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.  

He announced that his party is going to organise a historic public meeting in Hyderabad on February  4 and Bilawal Bhutto  Zardari  will  be  the  main   speaker of the event.  Earlier, he chaired a party’s  meeting  at the residence  of  PPP  Hyderabad division’s  president  Syed  Ali Nawaz Shah Rizvi.