Constituency profile: Voters in NA-253 weigh their options

25 to 30% of voters belong to the Shia community.

KARACHI:

The constituency of NA-253 has one of the highest literacy rates in the city at 77 per cent but the voter turnout in the last two elections has been relatively low - 32 per cent in the 2002 elections and 39 per cent in 2008. This year, however, the constituency boasts the highest number of registered voters in Karachi. 

Residents of the constituency seem to have had it with the deteriorating law and order situation, particularly the escalating sectarian and political violence and recurring burglaries. This year, they seem determined to exercise their right to vote.

Constituency & Candidates

Constituent Areas

North Karachi’s Sectors 1, 2 and 3, 5A-1, 2 and 3, 5A-4, 5B-1, 2, 3 and 4, 5D, 5M, 5F (partly), 6 C and D, Khamiso Goth (partly), Rajput Colony’s Sectors 5J (partly), 5E (partly), 5L, Mustafa Colony, and the katchi abadi adjacent to Sector 5B, Sector 5G (partly), commercial area near the graveyard and Sectors 12, 6A and B, Ajmer Nagar, Manghopir, Surjani, Surjani Town, Ibrahim Goth, Yousuf Goth, , Mai Gari and Mengal Goth.

“This is our chance to register the disappointment and displeasure against all those political parties who failed to address our plight -- they only paid a lip service to condemn the attacks in Abbas Town,” said Syed Shuja Hasan Rizvi, who lives in the relatively peaceful area of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 10 - several kilometers away from Abbas Town where twin blasts killed more than 50 people last year.

Rizvi belongs to the Shia community, which constitutes an estimated 25 to 30 per cent of the registered voters in NA-253 spreading across Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Shanti Nagar, University Road, Metroville III, Safoora Goth, portions of Faisal Cantonment and parts of Malir.

The constituency is home to four main public-sector universities in Karachi - the University of Karachi, NED University of Engineering and Technology, the Ojha Campus of Dow University of Health Sciences and Dow International Medical College, and Federal Urdu University of Arts, Science and Technology. Compared to other constituencies, NA-253 offers it residents multiple recreational venues, including the Safari Park, which opened in 1970, Aladin Amusement Park and Sindbad’s Wonderland.



The headquarters of the national space agency, Suparco, is located in Gulzar-e-Hijri. Pakistan Meteorological Department’s regional centre also falls under this constituency.

Apart from landmarks such as the National Cricket Stadium and Karachi Expo Centre, the Karachi Institute of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine in Safoora Goth is one of the only specialised institutes in the city offering treatment to cancer patients.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 4^th, 2013.