KARACHI: Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, did not submit nomination papers for the National Assembly constituency comprising Karachi’s Lyari area, where he commenced his political career during the 2018 election.
Even the Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party is not contesting elections from any national or Sindh Assembly seat in Karachi.
Bilawal Bhutto’s sister, Asifa Bhutto Zardari, also refrained from submitting nomination papers for any constituency, including Lyari.
Lyari is considered a political stronghold of the Pakistan Peoples Party. The founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, held the inaugural meeting of the new political party in Lyari, and he also contested elections from Lyari once.
In 1986, when Benazir Bhutto returned home after ending her self-imposed exile, she held her first meeting in Sindh’s Lyari.
The wedding ceremony of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari was held at the Kkari Ground in Lyari. Benazir Bhutto contested elections from Lyari in 1988, and Asif Ali Zardari did so in 1993.
On October 18, 2007, during an attack near Karsaz on the welcoming procession of Benazir Bhutto, the majority of the workers who were killed and injured hailed from Lyari.
Most of them were young people from Lyari who were part of the “Jan Nisaran Benazir” group formed for BB’s security.
Bilawal Bhutto contested the 2018 elections from Lyari’s National Assembly constituency NA-246 but faced defeat.
In these elections, the most votes from NA-246 Lyari were won by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Abdul Shakoor Shad, while Ahmad of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) secured second place. Bilawal Bhutto came in third.
The number of this National Assembly constituency in Lyari has changed over time. Previously, it was the National Assembly constituency NA-248, which became NA-246 in the 2018 elections.
Following new delimitations by the Election Commission of Pakistan based on the previous census, after the addition of one seat of the National Assembly in Karachi, these seats increased from 21 to 22, and the Lyari constituency number changed from NA-246 to NA-239.
For the 2024 general elections, the Pakistan Peoples Party has submitted nomination papers from senior party leaders Senator Yusuf Baloch and Nabeel Gabol.
Additionally, former chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan, Amir of Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, Maulana Noor-ul-Haq of Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), and Shaista Amir Chandio of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), which opposes the PPP in Sindh, have also submitted nomination papers for this National Assembly constituency NA-239.
Senior political analyst and columnist Sahil Sangi said, “After Bilawal Bhutto’s significant defeat from Lyari in the previous election, the PPP feared a repeat loss, leading the party to field other leaders from Lyari instead of Bilawal Bhutto.”
(Islamabad51_Newsdesk)
