KARACHI, Dec 23: Considering the current political scenario, the visit of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to the metropolis after a passage of about eight years is unlikely to make major impact on the Jan 8 general election results as his party is not in a position to win a single national assembly seat in the city, observers believe.

Despite the fact that the PML(N) failed to win any national or provincial assembly seats in Karachi during the 2002 general elections, it had fielded 15 candidates on 20 national assembly seats in the last general elections when Mr Sharif was in exile. The party had bagged a total of 42,056 votes from 15 constituencies in 2002.

However, this time the number of candidates for the 2008 general elections has been reduced. Out of 20 NA seats, PML(N) candidates were contesting only on 11 seats and on 42 provincial assembly seats, it was fielding candidates on 25 constituencies.

A central leader of the party, Nihal Hashmi, who bagged the second highest number of votes for the PML-N during the 2002 general election on a national assembly seat, did not file nomination papers for the 2008 polls. Former Sindh governor Mamnoon Hussain, who had contested the 2002 elections from NA-250, was also not in the run.

While conceding dim chances of winning any national assembly seat in Karachi, PML-N sources believed that their candidates may deliver good results on some of the provincial assembly seats.

They said that a tough fight is likely to be witnessed on PS-113 and PS-114, from where PML-N leaders Salim Zia and Sardar Rahim were contesting the election.

However, Sindh PML-N acting president Salim Zia told Dawn that the party would present a “surprise” in the Jan 8 election, as compared to 2002, the situation has changed after the return of Nawaz Sharif.

He claimed that the party was fielding strong candidates on national and provincial assembly seats and it also entered into seat adjustments with some political parties, including the PPP, therefore it did not field candidates on some constituencies in the city.

Mr Zia admitted that no public meeting was scheduled for Nawaz Sharif during his stay in Karachi. “He will again visit Karachi before Jan 8 and definitely hold public meetings here as part of the party’s election campaign,” he added.

Mr Sharif briefly addressed party workers gathered at the Mazar-i-Quaid. However, he was scheduled to visit Hazara Colony and Azam Basti, the areas falling in PS-113 and PS-114 constituencies, in the evening.

Insiders, however, maintained that Mr Sharif’s visit to the province is basically aimed at reorganising and strengthening the party cadre so that he could launch an effective movement against the regime after the upcoming elections.

They said that even though the party leadership was divided over the issue of participation in the polls, there was no difference on launching a nationwide movement against the regime.