Infighting threatens to derail PPP in Sanghar
SANGHAR district could spring a surprise or two on July 25 as all indications suggest the Pakistan Peoples Party won’t enjoy a cakewalk in the presence of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F).
If the PPP does suffer a setback, it won’t have to look beyond its own flanks to trace the source of its embarrassment — the Junejo group. The party ignored this faction during the award of tickets for the general election, but the latter has the ability to tilt the balance against the PPP by making it clear to the voter that it is disenchanted with it.
Read: With GDA help, PTI will defeat PPP in Sindh: Imran
Sanghar district has three National Assembly seats — NA-215 ( Sanghar and Sinjhoro), NA-216 (Khipro and Jam Goth) and NA-217 (Shahdadpur and Tando Adam). It has six seats in the Sindh Assembly — PS-41 (Sanghar), PS-42 (Khipro), PS-43 (Jam Nawaz Ali), PS-44 (Tando Adam), PS-45 (Shahdadpur) and PS-46 (Sinjhoro).
A tough contest is on the cards on all nine seats on July 25.
The contest can go either way in constituencies where the influence of heavyweights, and not a party’s popularity, is likely to determine the outcome. An example that comes to mind is the victory of PPP candidate Shazia Marri in a by-election to NA-235 (now 216), the first time that the PML-F lost an election in its stronghold.
We will sweep the polls in this district. Our differences with the Junejos go back generations and won’t have any bearing on PPP’s prospects. Naveed Dero
A repeat of such an upset cannot be ruled out in NA-216, PS-42, PS-43, PS-44 and PS-45 if Roshan Junejo, who is a PPP candidate in NA-217, becomes disenchanted with his party because it did not accept his plea for award of provincial assembly tickets to his son, Allauddin Junejo, and Asghar Junejo, an ex-adviser to the Sindh chief minister.
In the 2002 general election, when the Junejo group contested elections under the banner of the PML-F, the party made a clean sweep, winning all three seats of the National Assembly and the six Sindh Assembly seats.
The Junejos enjoy political leverage across the district, thanks to their interaction with the public. Moreover, they have been pragmatic. During the Musharraf era, they ended their long association with the PPP and joined the PML-F, led by the late Pir Pagara. He rewarded them by hand-picking Roshan Junejo for the slot of Sanghar district nazim.