High-stake seats in Sindh

High-stake seats in Sindh
2002 ELections
By Sohail Sangi
SINDH is an agricultural society and most of its population lives in rural areas where big landlords rule the roost in economic, social and political affairs. Traditional political families are in the arena to impose their dominance once again after the October elections.In the province there are at least six high-stake seats. Those being contested by PPP, PML (Q) and SDA heavyweights are the most prestigious ones on which the respective parties are focussing their energies to win at all costs. Defeat on these seats will not only mean the loss of face to the candidates but also a loss to their parties. Therefore, these keen contests are drawing the attention of the observers.Illahi Bux Soomro, former speaker of the National Assembly who recently joined the PML (QA), is contesting from NA-208 (Jacobabad-I0). He was elected from this seat in 1997. Although he is supposed to be very close to Islamabad power circles, this time he was neither offered any role by the Punjab-based parties nor did he get any help for consolidating the anti-PPP vote in his home province.On the contrary, when it was announced that Governor Mohammedmian Soomro would contest the election from this ancestral seat of the Soomro family, the position of the elder Soomro was further jeopardised. It is said that some most powerful person in Islamabad came to his rescue and the junior Soomro was asked to withdraw from the contest on the assurance that he would continue to hold the post of governor.Political pundits believe that if Illahi Bux wins the seat, he would be a good choice from Sindh for the prime ministership. However, if that is not so, he would then surely be considered for the office of speaker. That is why the NA-208 seat is regarded as a prestigious one.Illahi Bux is facing Aijaz Husain Jakhrani, younger brother of Mir Babal Jakhrani, a PPP leader and former MNA, who is an old political rival of Illahi Bux and has been ousted from the elections due to the graduation condition. Although Illahi Bux’s opponent is not a heavyweight like him, he is in hot water because, along with Jakhrani tribesmen, the Ghari Khairo Rajuni Awami Ittehad has announced that it would support the PPP candidate. The Ittehad comprises eight notables of major communities of the area.NA-198, Sukkur-I, is also an important seat from where Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, a trustworthy and active deputy of Benazir Bhutto, is contesting the election. The former deputy leader of the opposition is facing Abdul Qadir Ghumro, a PML (F) candidate supported by the SDA and National Alliance. In the last two successive elections this seat was won by Khursheed Shah. Here in a constituency which includes the Sukkur city, Sakhi Abdur Razzaq, the son of a PPP turncoat Sardar Muqeem Khoso, is also in the field on the ticket of the MQM. The MQM and the PML (F) may evolve a joint strategy against the PPP on this seat.Seats in Larkana and Nawabshah districts are important not because of the contestants — except Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Sindh PPP president — but because one is the home district of Benazir Bhutto and the other that of her jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari. The PPP opponents will spend all their energies to get the PPP candidates defeated in these two districts.The disqualification of PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and the resignation of Nawab Shabbir Ahmed Chandio from the post of Larkana district president had rather dismayed the PPP workers and candidates initially, but now the acceptance of Khuhro’s papers has lifted their morale. It is also speculated that Chandio will be back in the party fold before the election, and this will further raise the morale of the partymen.Khuhro, being the provincial party chief, may be a choice for the top slot if the party does well in the polls. He is facing Mansoor Ahmed Sheikh of the PML (QA) but does not run much risk.Although no party chief is contesting election from Sindh, political development shows that there are too many stakeholders in the province. They include the PPP, the Jatois, Pir Pagara and the Shaikhs.Former Sindh chief minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi is contesting for both Provincial Assembly and National Assembly seats (PS-76 and NA-233) on the PML (Q) ticket. He aspires for chief ministership if anti-PPP setup is implemented in Sindh following the election.There will be a tough contest between the PPP’s Zafar Ali Leghari and Liaquat Jatoi on PS-76 (Khairpur Nathan Shah).Leghari may be a choice of the PPP for the top slot in Sindh.On the National Assembly seat (NA-233, Dadu-III) where the PPP has pitched Rafique Ahmed Mahesar against Liaquat Jatoi, a neck and neck contest is expected.The name of Imtiaz Shaikh, a bureaucrat-turned politician, is also being mentioned for Sindh’s top slot. The SDA is his brainchild, which was founded and projected for consolidating anti-PPP forces, but this could not work. Shaikh is facing former federal minister Agha Tariq of the PPP on PS 11.The element of biradarism will also play a vital role in determining the results for PS 11 which has also remained a hot bed of bloody tribal clashes. The district is still at the mercy of old clans and the political parties have failed to make any difference as influential tribal chiefs are very much in.The PS-69 (Mirpurkhas-VII) seat is also a stake seat as former chief minister Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah is contesting on the ticket of the PML (F) from his home town constituency. The PPP has pitched Ali Mardan Shah, who was earlier defeated by him in 1993 when he became law minister and then chief minister after the death of Jam Sadiq Ali.Muzaffar Shah was absent from the scene and had been living abroad for the last four years. It is believed that Pir Pagara has specially summoned him to contest election in view of the inability of his son, Pir Sibghatullah Shah, to do so. Shah is also tipped for the top slot if it goes to Pagara group.Seats in Tharparkar and Thatta districts are important because Shirazi and Arbab are supposed to be the king’s men and have been claiming to be uncrowned kings of their respective districts. They have been active in anti-PPP campaign recently.So far Tharparkar is concerned, it is very difficult for the Arbabs to get through in two National Assembly and four Provincial Assembly seats.It is believed that the Arbabs have smelt a rat about the results of the October elections in Thar district, so they have demanded postponement of the election in this sandy belt on the pretext of drought.Observers and the people of Sindh are watching these contests with great interest.