KARACHI: While almost all political parties are still in discussions to finalise constituencies of candidates, the Pakistan Peoples Party has decided constituencies of former president Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari.

Aseefa, who is the youngest in the clan, is set to contest the National Assembly election from one of the Karachi seats while her brother, Bilawal, and father Asif Zardari have already announced that they would go to the polls from Larkana and Nawabshah, respectively, party sources confirmed on Sunday.

They said meetings of the PPP’s central election board were going on these days at the Bilawal House under the joint chairmanship of Bilawal and Asif Zardari and it was almost a consensual decision by the party leadership that Aseefa would contest for the National Assembly from one of the seats in Karachi.

As agreed by the senior leadership, constituencies of all the three of the family had been finalised, said the sources.

“Aseefa will definitely contest from Karachi,” said a party source in a brief reply to a question about the key leaders who were likely to become candidates from the metropolis.”

‘PPP will contest from all seats of Karachi and the names of candidates are being finalised in this regard’

He replied there was almost no chance of changing the decision at the last minute.

“She can contest from more than one constituencies but she will surely be contesting from Karachi,” he added.The source, however, did not mention the exact constituency of Aseefa.

Political pundits, however, believe that the 25-year-old graduate of the University College London in global health and development would become a candidate from the PPP’s stronghold of Lyari from where her mother, Benazir Bhutto, and father, Asif Ali Zardari, had emerged victorious in the general elections of 1988 and 1990, respectively.

“The PPP will contest from all seats of Karachi and the names of candidates are being finalised in this regard,” replied the source to a query about the party’s plan for Karachi in the upcoming general elections.

“Other than senior workers and leaders, the party will definitely consider young and fresh blood to become part of the electoral politics through this election.”

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has already announced to contest the forthcoming general election from NA-200 Larkana.

Announcing his decision following a meeting of the party’s parliamentary board at the Bilawal House a couple of days ago, the PPP chairman said Larkana had elected his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and mother Benazir Bhutto with overwhelming majority in every election they contested.

Last week, Asif Zardari had announced to contest from his native constituency of Nawabshah.

Published in Dawn, June 4th, 2018