LARKANA: With electioneering for PS-11 Larkana-II picking up momentum, the Shia Ulema Council (SUC) on Sunday renewed its support to Moazzam Ali Abbasi of the Larkana Awami Ittehad (LAI), whose main rival is Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Jamil Soomro.

Speaking at a press conference at the local press club, SUC leaders Allama Riaz, Allama Muhsan Ali Mufqari, Syed Niaz Hussain Shah and others said that the council, being part of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), had backed Mr Abbasi in the previous election as well. It had now decided to continue to stand by him, they added.

They said Mr Abbasi would be the joint candidate of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), SUC and LAI. They pointed out that Mr Abbasi had inflicted defeat on a PPP candidate in the 2018 general elections and this time again he would do the same.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Larkana district chief Maulana Nasir Mehmood Soomro also spoke at press conference. “The PS-11 is not Ghokti, where we had supported a PPP candidate,” he said, arguing that his party had no other option there. “But situation in Larkana is quite different ... the JUI-F is firm in its decision to stand by LAI’s Moazzam Abbasi in the re-election,” he added.

The polling for PS-11 Larkana-II is to be held on October 17. Responding to a question regarding proposed meeting between JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, he confirmed that it was scheduled but made it clear that the PS-11 re-election was not on the agenda.

On his part, Moazzam Abbasi told the press conference that Larkana was a politically alive city and its people know well as to who deserved and was fit to represent them.

Observing that the PPP was doing “confused politics”, Maulana Soomro said its Sindh president Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, Dr Shafqat Soomro and PS-11 candidate Jamil Soomro had called on him to seek JUI-F support for Jamil Soomro. “The JUI-F did not accept their request,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said he had already attended 23 court hearings of various corruption cases. “The hearings of mega corruption cases are frequently adjourned,” he remarked.

Mr Abbasi called Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari “a selected MNA” and said he himself knew how he had won the seat.

He pointed out that for 12 years, the PPP had been ruling over the province but the situation across it kept worsening and Larkana was an example.

Commenting on PPP’s handling of the local government affairs, he noted that it removed the Larkana mayor and replaced him with a weaker person.

The party, he pointed out, had won the Ghotki seat in a by-election only after the JUI-F extended its support to it.

He also complained of violation of the ECP-prescribed code of conduct by the ruling PPP saying that the medical superintendent of the Chandka Medical College Hospital and mukhtiarkar of Larkana were transfered while job letters were being distributed by the health department to woo voters. “We have informed the ECP about these violations,” he said.

Mr Abbasi said the Sindh United Party (SUP), Majlis Wahdatul-Muslmeen (MWM) and Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) had also announced their support to him in the election while talks with PPP-Shaheed Bhutto were in progress with positive signals.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2019