KARACHI, Feb 24: The electoral adjustments between various political parties on several national and provincial assembly seats in Karachi failed to translate into votes, except the one which took place between the Pakistan People’s Party and the Awami National Party.
Almost every contesting party, including the PPP, the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), ANP, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), had made seat adjustment agreements by supporting or withdrawing their candidates in favour of each others after the last date of withdrawal of candidature.
The parties struck the seat adjustment accords late and, therefore, the names of those candidates who announced retirement were also printed on the ballot papers, making it difficult for the voters to understand and remember the deal of their respective parties on polling day.
The election results of relevant constituencies revealed that as far as the seat adjustments were concerned, the political parties failed to convince their voters not to stamp their election symbols in order to honour the seat adjustment agreements.
However, the parties concerned blamed illiterate voters, particularly women, for wasting their votes by exercising their right of franchise in favour of those candidates who had already announced their retirement.
An interesting seat adjustment took place on NA-250 and PS-113, from where the PML-N announced its support for PPP’s Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, while the latter withdrew its candidate from the provincial assembly constituency in favour of PML-N’s Salim Zia. But on polling day, PML-N voters did not vote for Mr Baig as despite his withdrawal, Mr Zia got 3,480 votes. Similarly, the PPP’s Zulfiqar Qaimkhani secured 4,232 votes from PS-113.
However, Mr Zia said the seat adjustment agreement took place after the printing of the ballot papers and, hence, some voters, particularly women, stamped PML-N’s election symbol.
“This happened at polling stations located in katchi abadis and due to confusion of the ballot papers,” he said, adding that he had no complaint with the PPP as the party supported him and similarly, the PML-N supported the PPP’s Mr Baig.
The PPP also supported former provincial minister Irfanullah Marwat, who was contesting the election as an independent candidate from PS-114, and withdrew its candidate – Tahir Bashir Bhutta – from the constituency. However, Mr Bhutta got 2,593 votes, due to which Mr Marwat lost the election with a narrow margin of only over 900 votes. He got 22,042 votes against MQM’s Rauf Siddiqui’s 22,940.
Mr Marwat, however, did not see any dishonesty on part of the PPP. He told Dawn that some voters had mistakenly cast their votes in favour of the PPP candidate as, according to the deal, he was retired from NA-251 in favour of the PPP candidate.
“People had stamped the PPP election symbol – the arrow – due to some confusion, as I was also contesting election from the National Assembly constituency and they voted for me in the NA constituency. That was the reason I got over 6,000 votes despite my withdrawal in favour of the PPP’s Chaudhry Umar Hayat Sandhu,” he said, adding that this happened mainly with women and some illiterate voters.
Secretary-general of the PPP’s Sindh chapter Nafees Siddiqui told Dawn that the adjustments took place after the printing of names on ballot papers and could not be properly communicated to each and every individual.
Dud deal
The MQM had also entered into a seat adjustment agreement with the JUI and one day before polling the former announced the withdrawal of its candidates K.S. Mujahid Baloch from NA-239 and Nisar Ahmed Shar from NA-258 in favour of the JUI’s Qari Mohammad Usman and Saleemullah Khan Turk, respectively.
The deal did not work. On Feb 18, over 24,000 voters stamped the kite, the election symbol of MQM’s Mr Baloch instead of exercising their right in favour of their party-backed Qari Usman, who secured only 5,869 votes in NA-239. Similarly, the MQM voters refused to honour their party’s agreement and gave 15,017 votes to Mr Shar on NA-258, while Mr Turk secured only 2,965 votes.
It is learnt that the majority of the MQM leaders were not happy with the deal the party struck with the JUI and, therefore, the message to vote in favour of the latter’s candidate was not communicated to the voters.
However, a deal between the PPP and the ANP on four provincial assembly constituencies – PS-89, 93, 112 and 128 – was the most successful among all such agreements.
Under the deal, the ANP had withdrawn its candidates from PS-89 and PS-112 in favour of PPP’s Akhtar Hussain Jadoon and Syed Najmi Alam, respectively. In return, the PPP announced retirement of its candidates contesting election from PS-93 and PS-128 in favour of the ANP’s Ameer Nawab and Amanullah Khan Mahsud, respectively.
Both Mr Nawab and Mr Mahsud of the ANP returned successfully by securing 36,473 and 29,433 votes respectively. The PPP’s Muneeruddin Khattak got 110 votes while Mufti Ferozuddin Hazarvi got 1,921 votes from PS-93 and PS-128 constituencies.
Mr Jadoon of the PPP was also elected from PS-89 by securing 23,393 votes but Mr Alam lost the election with a narrow margin as he managed to get 26,902 votes against the successful candidate of the MQM, who got 27,371 votes. The ANP candidates got 233 and 160 votes from PS-112 and PS-89 respectively.
Sindh ANP President Shahi Syed told Dawn that his party could not have won the two seats without the cooperation of the PPP. “We had worked hard and informed our voters about our seat adjustment with the PPP,” he said, adding that despite the printing of the names of the ANP and PPP candidates on the ballot papers, the voters of both parties honoured the seat adjustment agreement between the two parties.
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