KARACHI, Dec 12: Claiming that the popularity of the Pakistan People’s Party in Sindh had suffered a setback and that it no more enjoyed the formidable position it used to in the past, former chief minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Q Sindh chapter president Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim said the fact that PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto was compelled to seek seat adjustments in her home constituency of Larkana with the JUI-F was proof of this.

“She is feeling so shaky about her success from the general seat that she also had to file a nomination against the women’s reserved seats to ensure her membership in parliament”, he said.

Arbab Rahim said this while addressing a press conference here on Wednesday at the newly set up PML election office in Clifton.

He said that his party had formulated a strategy to contest the coming elections with seat adjustments with its coalition partners and as such, they had fielded candidates in almost all 75 constituencies, including 14 for women’s reserved seats from Sindh, in the National Assembly and 168 seats of the Sindh Assembly.

He said following seat adjustment with coalition parties, the PML-Q alone had issued tickets to 62 candidates for the Sindh Assembly and 26 for the NA seats. Besides the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and the PML-F, Arbab Rahim said that his party was also attempting to rope in the JUI-F and National People’s Party.

Expressing pleasure over the “good response” the party had received during his recent visit to different districts in the province, he said this was in stark contrast to the past when people used to refuse contesting elections on the PML ticket.

Now, he said, the response could be assessed from the fact that in Larkana’s PS-41constituency, the number of aspirant candidates was so large that the party was compelled to carry out balloting to award the ticket.

He said the main contest would be between the PML-Q and PPP as other opposition alliances were undecided about participating in the elections. Now PML-N had also decided to compete in the race.

He said the reason for the good response to the party was the outcome of development work carried out during its three-and-a-half years in government, in which the party had served the people by laying road networks, initiating water and power supply schemes besides the laying of drainage systems in every village with a population of 5,000 and above.

Dr Arbab Rahim said that internationally, there was realisation among people of the crisis through which Pakistan was passing, which is why Turkish President Abdullah Gul came here to try and make local politicians realise the gravity of the situation, which called for eschewing internal conflict.