OKARA: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) seems to be drawing a blank in a district that was once considered mini-Larkana because of the party strength.

It has just one ‘strong’ candidate — former MNA Rai Ghulam Mujtaba Kharal — in NA-141 (Okara-1). For some other seats too the PPP politicians including Renala Khurd tehsil president Advocate Rana Abdul Rehman have submitted their nomination papers.

In the general election of 1970 when Okara and Deepalpur were tehsils of Sahiwal district, the PPP lost only one seat of the provincial assembly to Rao Muhammad Afzal Khan who also later joined the party headed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Then came the 1977 general election in which the PPP won all the National Assembly seats. The Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) boycotted the provincial assembly elections and started a protest movement against the PPP founder and it led to imposition of martial law in July that year.

It was on July 1, 1982 that Okara tehsil was elevated as district headquarters with Deepalpur as a tehsil. The late Gen Ziaul Haq formed Majlis-i-Shura and Rao Muhammad Afzal Khan and Haji Saedur Rehman Khan, both from Deepalpur, became its members but the diehard PPP leaders including former MNA Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed Majhiana and former MPA Rana Muhammad Azhar Khan declined the offer to join the consultative body.

The general election of 1985 under Zia regime were held on a non-party basis and a strong PPP lost its grip in Deepalpur.

The party won three of the four National Assembly seats in the general election of October 1988; Rao Sikandar Iqbal, Rao Muhammad Afzal Khan and Mian Atta Muhammad Khan Maneka emerged victorious. Rao Afzal defeated Nawaz Sharif in an important contest. Syed Sajjad Haider Kirmani won one seat. Out of the seven provincial assembly seats, the PPP won four.

The 1990 elections proved disastrous for the PPP as the IJI candidates Mian Muhammad Zaman, Syed Sajjad Haider Kirmani, Mian Muhammad Yaseen Khan Wattoo and Rao Qaiser Ali Khan won the four NA seats. Rana Ikram Rabbani (who became opposition leader in Punjab Assembly) was the sole PPP winner among eight provincial seats.

Similarly, the PML-N won three of the four NA seats in the 1993 polls. Mian Muhammad Yasin Wattoo, Rao Qaiser Ali Khan and Chaudhry Shafqat Abbas Rubera were the winning candidates.

Mr Rubera vacated the NA seat and in the bye-election PPP’s Rai Muhammad Aslam Kharal was elected an MNA. Out of the eight provincial assembly seats, the PPP could bag one with Rana Ikram Rabbani getting enough votes to sail through.

The PPP again cut a sorry figure in the 1997 election when the PML-N won the four NA and seven provincial seats. Mian Muhammad Zaman, Syed Sajjad Haider, Rao Qaiser Ali Khan and Mian Muhammad Yasin Wattoo were the winners on the National Assembly seats.

The 2002 elections were held in the regime of Gen Pervez Musharraf and the PML-Q won three of the four NA seats; its winning candidates being Rai Muhammad Aslam Kharal, Syed Gulzar Sibtain and Rubina Shaheen Wattoo, daughter of Mian Manzoor Wattoo. The only seat that went to the PPP was in the form of Rao Sikandar Iqbal’s victory. Rao Sikandar later joined Musharraf as PPP Patriot chief. PPP’s Ashraf Sohna was the sole winner in the provincial constituencies.

The party somewhat salvaged its pride by winning three of the five NA seats in 2008. Chaudhry Sajjadul Hassan, Capt Mujtaba Kharal and Samsam Bokhari won the elections.

The two seats of Deepalpur were won by Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo as an independent candidate. Later, his son Khurram Jahangir Wattoo won an MNA seat vacated by his father. It chipped in with two of the provincial seats.

The PML-N won the 2013 elections hands down by securing the five NA seats. Those who won were Chaudhry Muhammad Arif, Chaudhry Nadeem Abbas Rubera, Syed Ashiq Hussain Kirmani, Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan and Mian Muhammad Moeen Khan Wattoo who also won a provincial seat.

As PML-N MNA Chaudhry Muhammad Arif was disqualified by the election tribunal over fake degree in 2015, independent candidate Chaudhry Riazul Haq Juj won the election and later joined the PML-N.

As for the provincial contest, the PML-N won eight of the nine seats and the PTI bagged one.

Mian Manzoor Wattoo’s family which has three offices of the PPP prefers to contest as independent candidates this time round.

PPP district president Chaudhry Sajjadul Hassan says he is not in the electoral race due to poor health of his two brothers.

The PPP is divided into two groups in the city -- one is led by Sajjadul Hassan and the other by Chaudhry Ashraf Sangoka. Shahid Saleem Noonari, backed by Sajjad group, and Nawab Tariq Pathan of the other group have submitted nomination papers for NA-142.

In NA-143, PPP worker Ali Hasnain Naqvi has submitted his nomination papers.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2018