Bilawal won't contest polls from 'PPP stronghold' Lyari

• Bilawal to compete from Lahore, Larkana and Qambar Shahdadkot.
• Analysts say PPP is perhaps not confident of victory in constituency.
• PPP refutes notion, says party is in a strong position in Lyari.

Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), will not be contesting the general elections 2024 from Lyari, an area which falls under the NA-239 (Karachi South-I) constituency once considered a traditional stronghold of the party, The News reported on Tuesday.

The former federal minister will instead be competing from NA-128 (Lahore-XII), NA-194 (Larkana-I) and NA-196 (Qambar Shahdadkot-I). He has submitted nomination papers from these constituencies.

Some political analysts have said that the PPP chief's decision to not contest on the aforementioned seat suggests that either the PPP has no interest in the constituency after its loss to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the 2018 polls or it has failed to regain the confidence needed for reclaiming the seat in the elections slated to take place on February 8 next year.

However, the party refutes these notions. Sindh PPP general secretary Waqar Mehdi told The News on Monday that his party is in a strong position in Lyari. He cited the results of the previous local bodies elections in which PPP candidates won the majority of the seats and secured the helm of the Lyari Town municipality.

Mehdi claimed that PPP would emerge victorious not just from Lyari, but from other areas of the city in the upcoming polls. He said that the party had a vast pool of promising candidates who had filed their nomination papers from the city, and they would be awarded tickets after the completion of the scrutiny process.

On a question about the inclusion of new members and office-bearers in the party, predominantly from Urdu-speaking communities or former Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers, he said the PPP had always enjoyed the backing of Urdu-speakers and many among the party leadership were from this community.

Talking to The News, political analyst and journalist Sameer Mandhro said that after the defeat in the 2018 election, the PPP is not confident it would win the upcoming election in the constituency.

Last time, Bilawal contested the election on workers’ insistence, but he lost. He said Lyari has become complicated and the PPP cannot risk losing in that constituency again.

Mandhro said they do not want to take the risk again; therefore, they have fielded Bilawal in the constituencies where the party believes he could win. The PPP claims it has done a lot of development works in Karachi, but it seems that in its own assessment, it is not in a position to win in Lyari, he added.

He said there is speculation about Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari not contesting elections in Karachi because the party does not want to take any risk. He said if the PPP fielded Bilawal in Lyari and he lost the election, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) would humiliate the ruling Sindh party for failing to reclaim its stronghold in the city.

Political analyst and journalist Zia ur Rehman commented that the PPP had received a setback in the 2018 election when Bilawal lost to the PTI’s Abdul Shakoor Shad, who himself was once a PPP stalwart. “They were not expecting that they would lose and with such a margin,” he said, adding that the Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan had stood second and the PPP third.

Zia opined, “It seems that the PPP does not consider Lyari a safe seat for them anymore.” He added that not fielding Bilawal in Lyari may not be a good decision in terms of Sindh’s urban political dynamics. 

“The PPP has a mayor in Karachi for the very first time, yet do not have enough confidence to win their strongest hold in the city seems incomprehensible or the party has their own assessment in accordance with the decision.”

Mohsin Baloch, a resident of Lyari’s Chakiwara, said that despite being a PPP bastion in Karachi since the 1970s and having elected the party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his daughter Benazir Bhutto and her husband Asif Ali Zardari to the parliament, the neighbourhood lacks basic amenities.

“Currently there is electricity loadshedding of 16 hours each day. No gas in homes. And people are very angry at the authorities and powers that be,” Baloch said, adding that the PPP had lost interest in the constituency because of the people’s sentiments of deprivation.

“The constituency has been handed over to the workers and the senior leadership is not serious about it.”