Geared up for polls: PPP dishes out NA, Sindh Assembly tickets for Karachi

Luminaries of the party will contest from key constituencies.

SUKKUR/ KARACHI:

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday finalised its candidates for 20 National Assembly and 42 provincial assembly seats for Karachi.

A copy of the list, available with The Express Tribune, revealed that PPP has once again allotted NA-239 (Karachi West-cum-Karachi South) seat to Qadir Patel, the party’s Karachi division president.

Out of a total of 312,401 registered voters, 113,052 polled in the 2008 elections in the area. Patel secured 56,840 votes and Muttahida Quami Movement candidate Dr K S Mujahid Khan Baloch secured 24,013 votes. The voter turnout was 36%. MQM has not yet finalised its candidate for the seat for this year’s polls. Ishaq Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami will also contest from the same constituency.

For NA-240 (Karachi West-II), PPP has allotted its ticket to Abid Hussain Satti, its deputy general secretary for Karachi division. Khawaja Sohail Manzoor of MQM was the winning candidate in the 2008 elections, winning 67,799 votes against PPP’s Abdullah Baloch, who won 61,017 votes. The total voters registered in the area stood at 279,723, while the turnout was recorded at 46%.

NA-248 constituency of Lyari has been allotted to Shah Jahan Baloch (a nominee of the Peoples Aman Committee) which was won by Nabeel Gabol in 2008 by securing 84,217 votes. The total number of registered voters in the area was around 351,345 and the number of votes polled stood at 106,414. This meant the turnout was around 30%.

Rashid Hussain Rabbani will contest from the PPP platform for NA-250 (Clifton).

He is currently a member of PPP’s federal council. He has thrice served as president of PPP’s Karachi division. Rabbani, who has also served as general secretary of PPP Sindh, was allotted a Senate seat in 1993.

PPPP tickets finalised for 3 Sindh districts

The parliamentary board of Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPP-P) has decided on awarding tickets for National and provincial assembly seats in Larkana, Qamber-Shahdadkot and Jacobabad in Sindh.

A meeting in this regard was held at the president’s camp office in Naudero late Monday night which was chaired by former member of the National Assembly Faryal Talpur.

According to sources, the NA-204 constituency ticket of Larkana has been awarded to former law minister Ayaz Soomro, who had contested the last elections from PS-37 constituency of Ratodero. Nazir Ahmed Bughio has been awarded the party ticket for NA-205 (Dokri), while no decision was made on NA-206 (Shahdadkot), for which Aamir Magsi and Sardar Khan Chandio are both demanding the party ticket.

Larkana-Ratodero NA-207 seat, which was the home constituency of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, has been allotted to Talpur. PPP (Shaheed Bhutto) Chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Ameer Bux Bhutto are also contesting on this seat, sources said.

No decision has yet been made for PS-39 (Qamber), which will either be given to Ghulam Mujtaba Isran or Burhan Khan Chandio.

PPPP ticket for PS-40 constituency of Shahdadkot was awarded to Nadir Magsi, but his nomination papers have been rejected due to a fake degree. Therefore, a decision regarding this seat is still pending.

The nomination papers of PPPP candidate Mir Babul Khan Jakhrani for PS-13 (Garhi Khairo) were rejected because he defaulted on a bank loan. His nephew Mumtaz Khan Jakhrani has been awarded the ticket.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2013.