Battling for PS-21: Anti-PPP forces unite for election

It is a referendum on the new local government law, says NPP candidate.

HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party may be pinning its hopes on a victory in the PS-21 by-elections in Noshehro Feroze district on manoeuvres likely to draw allegations of rigging. Yet, its candidate can emerge victorious if the party gives in to political bait - withdraw the Sindh Peoples Local Government Act, 2012, to win the election almost unopposed.

The chief of the National Peoples Party, MNA Ghulam Murtaza Jatoi, made this offer while talking to the media at the hunger strike camp of the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party in Qasimabad last week. “We will not only withdraw the candidate but will also rejoin the government [if the PPP repeals the SPLGA 2012],” Jatoi said.

The NPP has pitted its candidate, Syed Abrar Shah, against the PPP’s Syed Sarfaraz Hussain Shah in a by-election which is seen as a referendum on the new local government law. “This election doesn’t concern us with the victory or defeat of the NPP candidate... it’s a referendum on whether Sindhis want this local government system or not.”

There are 16 contenders vying for the PS-21 seat election, slated for November 17. But, the actual fight will be between the PPP and NPP candidates and the independent Syed Zuhaib Ali Shah, the nephew of PPP MNA Zafar Ali Shah.

The differences between the PPP and its MNA, who is also a vocal opponent of the SPLGA, intensified after his family was denied the party ticket.

Shah was hoping that the seat left vacant after the disqualification of his brother, MPA Dr Ahmed Ali Shah, in the dual nationality case, would be retained by his family. But the PPP chose another candidate for the ticket, provoking Shah to field his nephew as an independent candidate. In the 2008 general elections, Dr Shah bagged 34,872 votes followed by 22,463 secured by Syed Manzoor Hussain Shah of the NPP.

However, local observers believe that the Shahs and Jatois have much in common and will settle for a mutually supported candidate. “They are united in a struggle against the local government system and both nurture resentment for the PPP,” said a journalist. The visit to Naushehro Feroze of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional’s leader, Pir Pagara, this week is also expected to bring the two sides to settle for one candidate.

“The time is not for politics but to prove how much we love our motherland,” said STPP chairman Dr Qadir Magsi. “The people of Sindh should punish the PPP in these by-elections for its conspiracy to divide Sindh.”

Magsi has been urging all the opponents of the SPLGA to unite in an electoral alliance against the PPP. He announced unconditional support for the NPP candidate.

The two leaders alleged that the PPP has begun pre-poll rigging in the constituency. The NPP candidate claimed that the ruling party has transferred the officers of police and revenue departments to bring those who can help the PPP candidate manipulate elections. “Three DSPs, a Mukhtiarkar and several SHOs in the constituency have been transferred.” Abrar Shah also accused the Provincial Election Commission at a press conference last week of shifting many polling stations from the Jatoi strongholds in Mehrabpur, Halani, Hayat Sehto and other areas.

However, the PPP’s candidate, Syed Sarfaraz Shah, rejects these charges, saying his opponents are fearing defeat. “They are making grounds to justify how the self-proclaimed champions of Sindh’s cause are defeated by framed traitors,” he remarked while talking to reporters in Naushehro Feroze.

The PS-21 constituency has 119,884 registered voters, including 65,173 males and 56,117 females, while 117 polling station have been set up, according to the returning officer Sain Baksh Channar.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2012.