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Malir — a district cobbled together to carve out electoral win
• PPP won two of three NA and all PA seats in 2018 polls, snatched PTI’s lone NA seat in 2022 by-poll
• MQM-P leaves the field open for opponents on two NA, four PA seats
MALIR is one of the seven districts in Karachi division that has always been considered as a stronghold of the Pakistan Peoples Party. In fact, the district was carved out of Karachi’s East and West districts in 1996 by the then government of the PPP.
The rural areas of the two districts, where majority of residents are Sindhis and Baloch, were amalgamated to create the Malir district in what PPP’s detractors believed to be an attempt to break the electoral dominance of the then Mohajir Qaumi Movement, now known as Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
However, divisions were abolished during Musharraf’s era and Karachi was declared one district and the 2002 and 2008 general elections were held on that basis. The PPP government had restored Malir and other city districts in 2011.
It may be noted that Malir Town, one of the 25 towns in Karachi, is not part of district Malir as it falls in the territorial jurisdiction of district Korangi.
The total population of Malir stands at 2,432,248 and it is the largest district of the metropolis in terms of area.
Over the years the district remained in limelight due to many reasons. In January 2018, aspirant model from Waziristan Naqeebullah Mehsud and three others were killed in a staged encounter within the jurisdiction of the same district.
In November 2021, rights activist Nazim Jokhio was tortured to death in the same district and a PPP MPA and his MNA brother Jam Karim Bijar, who was elected in the 2018 general elections from one of the three Malir constituencies, were charged with the murder.
The same district also houses two mega projects — Bahria Town Karachi and DHA City.
Before 2017 delimitation that followed the sixth population census, there were two National Assembly (NA-257 & NA-258) seats in Malir. However, the district got an additional NA seat.
In the 2018 general elections, the PPP had won two out of three seats — then numbered as NA-236, NA-237 and NA-238 — in Malir and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) managed to get one seat. In a by-poll held in 2022, the PPP captured the third seat as well.
The PPP also succeeded in winning all five provincial assembly seats defeating the candidates of the PTI, MQM-P and PML-N with a reasonable margin in the 2018 polls.
This time round, Malir has three National Assembly — NA-229, NA-230 and NA-231 — and six provincial assembly seats — PS-84 to PS-89.
The district has a total of 824,873 registered voters, including 467,222 male and 357,651 female voters.
There are 66 contestants on three NA and 156 aspirants on six provincial assembly seats in the district.
The electoral results of the previous general elections reflected that the PTI stood face-to-face against the PPP in Malir, as the MQM-P chose not to field its candidates on two of the three NA seats in the district.
However, this time around the embattled PTI is struggling since its top leadership is in prison and rest of them are on the run or in hiding due to criminal cases. The party has also lost its electoral symbol, bat, and its candidates have been left with no option but to contest the polls as independent contenders.
The MQM-P also has little focus on the district for upcoming polls as it has only fielded one candidate on an NA seat and two on as many PA seats.
The PPP is likely to repeat the 2018 victory trend on Feb 8, but it appears that the PML-N may give a tough time to the party in some NA and PA constituencies.
NA-229 Malir-I
The NA-229 (Malir-I) is the first NA constituency of the city and it has mainly been carved out from the old NA-236 and besides urban, there are several rural areas which have been made part of this constituency. It is dominated by the PPP since its inception in 2018.
The constituency comprises Bin Qasim Sub-Division, Gadap Sub-Division, Shah Mureed Sub-Division, Khanto, Bazar, Darsano Chano, Khakhar, Kharkharo, Konkar, Thado and Tore.
The population of the constituency is 813,229 and there are 232,437 registered voters, including 130,166 male and 102,271 female voters.
There are 15 contenders in the run for Feb 8, including PPP’s Jam Abdul Karim Bijar, Fauzia Hameed of MQM-P, PML-N’s Qadir Bux, PTI-backed Wali Mohammad Baloch, Mumtaz Hussain of JI and TLP’s Muhammad Ijaz.
In 2018 general elections, Jam Karim Bijar of the PPP won this seat with a big margin of around 40,000 votes against PTI’s Masroor Ali.
NA-230 Malir-II
The NA-230 (Malir-II) was NA-238 in the last general elections.
This constituency has an overall population of 809,323 with 250,009 registered voters, including 145,303 males and 104,706 females.
It covers Ibrahim Hyderi, Landhi, some parts of Korangi Creek Cantonment, Rehri Goth, Cattle Colony, Gangiaro and other areas.
PPP’s Syed Rafiullah, Haji Muzafar Ali Shajra of PML-N, PTI supported Masroor Ali, Hafiz Aurangzeb Farooqui of Pakistan Rah-i-Haq Party, JI’s Mohammad Islam and Mohammad Anwar of TLP are among 25 aspirants vying for this seat in the upcoming elections.
However, the MQM-P has not fielded any candidate from this constituency.
In 2018 general elections, Syed Rafiullah of PPP had clinched this seat with a margin of around 10,000 votes against Aurangzeb Farooqui.
NA-231 Malir-III
This constituency (NA-231 Malir-III) was previously NA-237.
It has a total population of 809,696 and 342,427 registered voters, including 191,753 males and 150,674 females.
Airport sub-division, Faisal Cantonment Board, Malir Cantonment Board, district municipal corporation Malir and other areas are part of this constituency.
There are 26 aspirants in the field here, including PPP’s Abdul Hakeem Baloch, Jamil Ahmed Khan of PML-N, PTI-backed Advocate Khalid Mehmood, JI’s Umer Farooq and Mohammad Ismail Hussaini of TLP.
In the last general elections, the then PTI’s aspirant Jamil Ahmed Khan had clinched the seat with a margin of around 1,500 votes against PPP’s Hakeem Baloch.
However, in the by-election held in the constituency in 2022 due to the resignation of Jamil Ahmed Khan, Hakeem Baloch of PPP managed to defeat PTI founder Imran Khan with a margin of around 10,000 votes.
Mr Baloch had won the seat on a ticket of the PML-N in the 2013 general elections by defeating PPP’s Razzaq Raja with over 15,000 votes. However, he resigned from the NA and in the 2016 by-election won the seat again from the platform of the PPP with a big margin of around 50,000 against Shah Waliullah of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Sami (JUI-S).
Sher Mohammad Baloch of the PPP had retained this seat in 2008 and 2002 general elections.
In 1997 general elections, MQM’s Farogh Naeem Siddiqui had defeated PPP’s Abdullah Murad with a margin of around 30,000 votes.
Provincial assembly seat
The Malir district had five Sindh Assembly seats in the last general elections and now, with an addition of one more seat, it has six (PS-84 to 89) seats for the Feb 8 general elections.
The PS-84 (Malir-I) is covering Airport sub-division, Shah Murred sub-division, Murad Memon (Kharkharo, Konkar, Thado, Tore) and other areas.
The total population of the constituency is 413,455 and there are 133,063 voters and among them 72,996 are male and 60,067 are female.
There are 19 contenders on PS-84 (Malir-I) including PPP’s Mohammad Yusuf Baloch, Khurram Abbas of the PML-N, PTI-backed Zain-ul-Abedin Kolachi, Saqib Ansari of the JI and TLP’s Ghulam Akbar.
The population of PS-85 (Malir-II) is 439,510 and registered voters are 151,805 including 83,964 men and 67,841 women. It comprises Bakran, Dhabeji, Dhando, Joreji, Pipri, Abdar, Kathore, Dharsano Chano, Khakhar and other areas.
Mohammad Sajid of PPP, PML-N’s Hafeezullah, PTI supported Mehwish Hasan Rao, JI’s Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Dilbar Shah of TLP are among 29 aspirants.
The PS-86 (Korangi-III) covers Bin Qasim (Sanharo), Ibrahim Hyderi (Ghangiaro, Khanto, Landhi) and other areas. It has an overall population of 387,023 and registered voters are 85,904, including 50,180 male and 35,724 female.
There are 25 contenders trying to clinch the seat including Abdul Razzaq Raja of PPP, Khalid Khan of JI, Mohammad Yaqoob of PML-N, Mohammad Hanif Bangash backed by PTI and TLP’s Mohammad Afzal.
The PS-87 (Malir-IV) comprises Ibrahim Hyderi, some parts of Korangi Creek Cantonment, Rehri Goth and other areas.
The total population of the area is 399,635 with registered voters of 106,855 including 61,616 men and 45,239 women.
Mehmood Alam of PPP, MQM-P’s Kiran Masood, PML-N Mehar Ali Shah, PTI supported aspirant Taus Khan, JI’s Miraj Mohammad Khan and Mohammad Imran of TLP are among 19 contestants from this constituency.
The population of PS-88 (Malir-V) is 399,556 and registered voters are 159,743 with 93,262 men and 66,481 women.
Some parts of district municipal corporation Malir, part of Ibrahim Hyderi, Ali Goth, Sakin Dad Goth and other areas are part of this constituency.
There are 21 candidates in the run, including Syed Muzammil Shah of PPP, Mohammad Anwar of JI, Mohammad Feroze of PML-N, PTI-backed Ijaz Khan and TLP’s Saleem Ghauri.
The PS-89 (Malir-VI) is covering Thano, DMC Malir part of Murad Memon, Ghazi Town and other areas and the total population is 393,069. There are 187,503 total registered voters including 105,204 male and 82,299 female.
There are 45 aspirants in this constituency among them are PPP’s Mohammad Saleem, MQM-P’s Hameed-ul-Zafar, PTI-supported Ahsan Khattak, JI’s Sohail Haider, Mohajir Qaumi Movement’s Noshed Farooqui, TLP’s Khalid Latif and Raza Mohammad of ANP contesting from PS-89.
Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2024
Header image: A commuter rides past election campaign posters of the PPP in Karachi on Jan 31, 2024, ahead of Pakistan’s upcoming general elections. — AFP
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