The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) clinched an unprecedented and absolute victory in five out of six administrative divisions in the interior Sindh, bagging 37 out of 39 National Assembly seats and 74 out of 83 Sindh Assembly seats.
The PPP routed the opponents in 22 districts, taking 11 National Assembly and 24 Sindh Assembly seats in Hyderabad division, eight National Assembly and 16 Sindh Assembly seats in Larkana; 7 National Assembly and 11 provincial assembly seats in Sukkur; 6 National Assembly and 12 provincial assembly seats in Nawabshah; and 5 National Assembly and 11 provincial Assembly seats in Mirpurkhas division.
The party lost only two National Assembly seats, which were in Hyderabad. The party however, won one remaining seat from there. In the five divisions, the party lost 9 provincial assembly seats, compared to 14 losses in 2018 elections.
Four of the candidates who could succeed against the PPP were the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed independents, three belonged to Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and two to the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA).
The Mirpurkhas division, with 5 national and 11 provincial assembly seats turned up as the strongest electoral fortress for the party with no defeat. In the 25-seat Larkana division and 19-seat Nawabshah division, the PPP lost just one constituency each.
Out of 41 constituencies in Hyderabad division, the PPP's candidates were trounced only on six seats, all in Hyderabad district – one of the nine districts in the division. Three seats were also lost in Sukkur division which consists of 21 constituencies.
The PPP also won on five National Assembly constituencies in Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Mirpurkhas and Badin districts, which were won by the PTI, GDA and one independent in the 2018 elections.
The party caused upsets for the GDA in Sanghar and Khairpur districts, which had been considered as strongholds of Pir Pagara Syed Sibghatullah Rashdi, who heads the alliance. The GDA managed to secure one seat each from the two districts against its five provincial assembly seats in 2018.
The big shock surfaced in Badin, where Dr Zulfiqar Mirza and Dr Fehmida Mirza, whose sons and supported candidates could not defend their previous victories. Besides the Arbabs of Tharparkar, the Jatois of Naushehroferoze, the Abbassis of Larkana and the Syeds of Mirpurkhas were also vanquished.
Read: Independent springs surprise against PPP
The Jamaat-e-Ulema-Islam-Fazl also put up a strong fight in some constituencies in Jacobabad, Kashmore-Kandhkot, Shikarpur, Kambar-Shahdadkot and Sukkur. But, its candidates could not secure success.
However, despite such a massive inroad, the PPP did confront setbacks on at least in two provincial constituencies in Jacobabad and Ghotki districts. It lost its seat, PS-3 Jacobabad III, to PTI's independent candidate Mumtaz Hussain Khan and PS-19 Ghotki II to independent candidate Nadir Akmal Laghari.
Apart from the conquests and defeats, there were constituencies which witnessed very close competitions in terms of the results.
The PPP's Ali Jan Mazari was declared winner on NA-191 Jacobabad-cum-Kashmore with a margin of over 3,000 votes against his JUI-F's opponent Shahzain Khan who was polled 100,652 votes.
Former Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) chairperson Shazia Marri of the PPP received 156,002 votes in NA-209 Sanghar, against 139,604 votes of GDA’s Muhammad Khan Junejo.
PPP's Mahesh Kumar Malani and GDA's Arbab Ghulam Rahim, a former chief minister of Sindh, also had a massive fight in NA-215 Tharparkar with the former getting 132,061 votes and the latter 113,346 votes.
Similar, electoral battle was seen between PPP's Makhdoom Jameeluz Zaman and PML-N's Bashir Memon, a former director general of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on NA-216 Matiari and between PPP's Irfan Ali Laghari and GDA's Liaquat Ali Jatoi on NA-227 Dadu.
Dynasty's victories
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sisters Faryal Talpur and Azra Afzal Pechuho were all elected on their respective seats with a large margin. Bilawal was polled 135,112 votes on NA-194 Larkana and 85,370 votes on NA-196 Qambar-Shahdadkot. His opponents from the JUI-F received 35,311 and 34,499 votes, respectively, on the two seats.
Similarly, Zardari secured 146,989 votes against PTI-supported independent candidate Sardar Sher Muhammad Rind Baloch's 51,916 votes on NA-207 in Benazirabad district. Faryal Talpur received 85,917 votes in PS-10 Larkana and Azra Pechuho secured 75,260 votes in PS-36 Benazirabad.
MQM-P vs PTI
The battle between the two parties unfolded only in Hyderabad district. However, MQM ended up winning two National Assembly and three provincial assembly seats, giving only one provincial constituency to a PTI-backed independent candidate, according to RO's results.
The results of the MQM’s victory in NA-219, NA-220 and PS-64 were announced late on Friday night, around 30 hours after the end of the polling process.
Karachi Division
The MQM appeared as the largest party with 12 National Assembly seats in Karachi, with a clean sweep in the Central and Korangi districts. The PPP got six of 18 seats in Karachi division. Similarly, with 20 provincial assembly seats, the MQM was leading in the city.
Independent candidates bagged 10 seats in metropolis, followed by the PPP’s 9. The Jamaat-e-Islami got only 2 seats, according to the unofficial results of the 41 out of 47 seats of Karachi division.
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