HYDERABAD, May 12: All projections about the emergence of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional as a serious contender to Pakistan Peoples Party and its ability to erode the party’s traditional vote bank turned upside down by the unofficial poll results so far made available to the media.

The PML-F, which was spearheading a 10-party alliance it had cobbled together against the PPP, has barely managed to hold onto its traditional constituencies.

The party has reportedly got seven provincial assembly seats in the province. It had fielded 98 candidates, in all, for National Assembly and provincial assembly seats.

The party itself was quite optimistic about making major gains in the PPP’s strongholds like Badin, Matiari, Umerkot, etc but the results, albeit unofficial, tell a different story.

Not to mention the party’s failure to throw up a major surprise it has suffered a setback in Shikarpur where it expected a clean sweep. “In Shikarpur, we will have a clean sweep,” PML-F Sindh general secretary Imtiaz Sheikh had told Dawn a few days before the polls.

Agha Siraj Durrani defeated the PML-F’s Zulfikar Kamario on PS-9 although Mr Durrani had won the seat in the 2008 elections by a thin margin.

Results in Matiari are also surprising for the PML-F. The party had fielded a strong candidate in Nazir Rahu, a former PPP leader and a personal friend of President Asif Ali Zardari, for PS-43 against Makhdoom Jamiluzzaman, son of Makddoom Amin Fahim, and Mohammad Ali Shah Jamote, an old-timer of the PML-F, against Amin Fahim’s younger brother Dr Rafikuzzaman on PS-44.

Mr Rahu received a drubbing by the Makhdoom and lost by 8,000 or so votes and Mr Jamote was beaten by 5,286 votes, according to unofficial results.

“PS-9 (Shikarpur) result is a surprise for us. Mr Durrani won this seat in 2008 by only a lead of 5,000 votes and now according to unofficial results he is having a big lead,” said Nusrat Sehar Abbasi, who is the PML-F’s candidate for reserved seats for women in the Sindh Assembly. She said that her party lost three party workers in electoral violence.

Contrary to electoral projections, the party failed to make any inroads in the PPP stronghold, Badin, where it had fielded candidates on three provincial seats. It had an understanding with Arbab Ghulam Rahim, former Sindh chief minister, but it could not translate it into victory.

The party faced a similar situation in Tando Mohammad Khan where the PML-F’s Mir Inayat Talpur lost to Ejaz Shah Bukhari on PS-53.

It even failed to reclaim PS-69 in Umerkot (which Muzaffar Shah had won in 2002) which Faqir Jadam Mangrio lost to Sardar Shah of the PPP. Mehtab Akbar Rashdi and her son Rafay Akbar Rashdi also failed to clinch wins on Larkana’s PS-38 and PS-41 despite tall claims.

Unofficial results show that Imtiaz Sheikh has, however, returned to the Sindh Assembly from Shikarpur PS-11, beating Agha Taimoor. The other seat of the district, PS-10, was won by the PML-F’s Shaharyar Mahar. Shaharyar and his father Ghaus Bux Mahar had only recently joined the PML-F before elections.

The party lost three of Sanghar’s six provincial assembly seats including that of Jam Madad Ali (PS-81), Shakeel Ahmed (PS-82) and Mohammad Bux Khaskheli (PS-83).

In Khairpur, the party has managed to retain PS-30 where Mohammad Rashid Shah won and Dr Rafiq Banbhan grabbed PS-31. The PML-F had lost PS-30 in a by-election after Sadruddin Shah opted to keep the National Assembly seat in the 2008 polls. Sanghar’s all six seats were bagged by the PML-F in 2002 elections, taking its overall tally of general seats to 10. In 2008 elections, the number of seats again dropped to six.

Spiritual head of the PML-F Pir Sibghatullah Shah had cobbled together parties of different ideologies in the 10-party alliance to cash in on PPP’s dropping popularity and it had even tried to sell its nationalist image to Sindhi people and nationalist forces over the controversial Sindh People’s Local Government Act 2012 but it apparently did not pay off.

On the other hand, despite poor governance plagued by corruption and nepotism, the PPP appears to comfortably win 69 or so seats though it may invite recounting of ballots or re-polling at some polling stations.

“We have been mentally preparing ourselves the party will retain its traditional seats. It was only for organisational purposes that we fielded so many candidates in the province. We only focussed on districts located on the left bank of the river and didn’t focus on right bank districts,” said PML-F Sindh president Sadruddin Shah Rashdi, who was contesting NA-216 (Khairpur) against Sajid Ali Bhanbhan and NA-235 (Sanghar) against Shazia Mari.

“Even otherwise, we don’t rely on televised results unless these are announced by returning officers,” he added. He said he planned to contest some results “but need to see the evidence first whether these are worth moving courts or will be merely a waste of time”.

Asked his party had failed to throw up any surprises, Mr Rashdi said: “Surprises can’t be thrown in 21 days of campaign. We went into the campaign keeping in mind organisation of our party, so we came up with a relatively larger number of candidates as compared to previous elections”.

But Jami Chandio, a writer, did not agree with Mr Rashdi. In fact, the party’s lack of emotional appeal, programme and manifesto were the reasons behind its lacklustre performance in polls, he said.

“It was widely expected that PPP would retain its seats in Sindh but its number was hard to predict before polls. Re-emergence of PPP clearly indicates that there is no alternate for people and I believe people whose interests are linked with programmes like Benazir Income Support Programme see things differently,” he said.

“Secondly, people usually see which party is gong to matter in power politics and they do not see PML-F playing any major role in power politics,” he said.