NA 241 KORANGI
There are 15 candidates contesting for NA-241 Karachi, Korangi III, of whom 10 have been fielded by political parties and five are independents.
NA-241 was carved out by adding areas included in old NA-250 and NA-254. The majority is of Urdu speakers, and it begins from Awami Colony Landhi and goes all the way to DHA phase VII, Qayuuma Abad. Areas included in the constituency are: Awami Colony, Allah Bux Goth/Landhi, Lal Muhammad Goth, Gulshan-e-Millat, Bilal Society, Korangi, Lucknow, P&T Society, DHS, Chakra Goth, Zia Colony, Mehran Town, Gulshan-e-Latif, Christen Town, Cantt Korangi creek, Allah Wala Town, Altaf Town, Qayumabad, Extansion Clifton Cantt, and Khiyaban-e-Jami DHA Phase 7.
NA-241 was once considered a stronghold of the MQM which looked like an unbeatable political force till the 2013 election. In 2008, MQM’s Dr. Muhammad Ayoub Sheikh won with 132,648 votes and Muhammad Ali Rashid of the party secured the seat in 2103 with 53,045 votes.
However, now the scenario has changed as the party faces infighting ever since a Rangers-led crackdown against it cadre. Many groups have splintered from it, weakening its hold on the seat.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was the second largest political force here in 2013 elections; PTI bagged the second highest number of votes and is likely to give a tough time to its opponents this year as well.
| GE | MQM | PTI | PML-N | PPP |
| 2002 | 42888 | 4926 | ||
| 2008 | 132648 | — | 4965 | 14302 |
| 2013 | 53045 | 5855 | 2533 | 670 |
The five-party religious alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal also has a votebank here in Bilal Colony, Zia Colony, Allah Wala Town , Qayumabad and DHA.
The MQM has been unable to properly conduct its campaign this year due to what many observers are saying is a lack of funds and fear of facing voters. Although, MQM-P convener Aamir Khan has been leading the party’s campaign in the area. The campaigns of the PTI and the Pak Sarzameen Party have been in full swing.
The total population of the constituency is 819,223, of whom the number of registered voters is 314,450 (186,181 men and 128,269 women). At 37 percent, the turnout here wasn’t as high as in some of the other areas of the city in 2013.
NA Candidates
The MQM-P has fielded Muhammad Moin Aamir Pirzada who has been elected as an MPA from the area in 2002, 2008 and 2013 elections.
Pirzada, who served as the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly in the previous five-year term, started of his political career from a lower-middle class background and many voters Daily Times spoke to complained that over the years he had amassed great fortunes for himself. “He used to say that he would fight for the rights of 98 percent, but eventually he has ended up in the top two percent himself,” they said.
Faheem Khan of the PTI has been the president of the party’s Korangi chapter. Many voters were found to be content about the PTI’s decision to award tickets to Faheem Khan (NA) and Raja Azher Khan (PS-97).
About the PSP candidate Danish Khan, a resident of Clifton, many voters maintained that he was a wealthy industrialist who could never understand their problems.
The PPP has given its ticket to Mozzam Ali from the Urdu speaking Qureshis. He owns a construction business and is the youngest candidate in the race.
The banned Sipah Sahaba has also fielded a candidate through its front Pakistan Rah e Haq Party (PRHP).
Provincial voters and seats
The total number of voters in PS-96 is 182,239, of which male voters are 105,992, and female voters are 76,247. There are 105 polling stations in the constituency, with 420 polling booths.
In PS-97, the total number of voters s 129,301, of which male voters are 75,592, and female voters are 53,709. There are 72 polling stations with 288 polling booths.
In PS-96, MQM-P’s candidate Ghulam Jeelani has previously served as Korangi chairman and has been living in same area. The candidate for Pak Sarzameen Party is Syed Faizan Yasir, who has an MBA degree and works as a consultant. PPP’s Asad Mujahid from PS-96 is the son of former MPA Aslam Mujahid who has also been a political activist in Korangi affiliated with the Jamaat-i-Islami. His son had joined the PPP earlier. The PTI has fielded Sajid Iqbal Hussain, while MQM’s Kamran Tessori is also contesting as an independent candidate.
In PS-97, MQM-P’s Waqar Hussain Shah is expected to get a good number of votes since he belongs to the Hazara Community. However, PTI’s Raja Azher Khan is also in the list of favorite candidates here because in the last election, when he contested from NA-251, he managed to get 39,766 votes. The candidate fielded by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz here, Nusratullah, who is also the vice chairperson of the PML-N in Karachi Cantonment, has a good reputation among the voters of this area. The residents of Bhittai Colony appear content with his political work and he is expected to win a good number of votes from Qayumabad and Noorani Basti. MMA’s Mansoor Feroz will attract voters who have traditionally supported religio-political parties. Saad Siddiqui is a new comer who has been fielded by the PSP. He has a master’s degree in criminology and is a businessman by profession. Naeem Sheikh, former NA-248 candidate fielded by the PTI, is now contesting from the PPP’s ticket. Syed Gayas Ahmed is a school van driver who has been fielded by the TLP.
Daily Times posited open-ended question to a random sample of 1300 voters in the constituency and found the following trends:
Socio-economic profile of the constituency
The majority of the voters here belong to Urdu speaking communities that migrated to Pakistan and settled in the port city after Partition. These include include Biharis, Qureshis, Shekhawahti Gujratis, Meeralams, Abbasis, Luhars, Rajputs and Sheikhs.
In some part of the Korangi, there are pockets of Sindhi, Bengali, Hazara, Balti and Pakhton voters.
A majority of the voters here are employed in the private sector, whereas many have their own businesses and some work in the public sector as well.
There will be a tough three-way race between the PML-N, MQM-P and PTI in Qayyum Abad’s A, B, C and D areas, since these have sizeable population of Hazarawals Punjabi and Pakhtuns, besides Urdu speakers. Since Waqar Shah is a Hazarawal, he is expected to be in a position of strength.
Voter’s Issue
The residents of the constituency say they have experienced 10 years of the PPP in power in the Sindh province, but at the local level, the sewerage system is still underdeveloped. They say gutter water usually mixes with the water supply and when people consume the tap water, they develop several medical problems.
Mashooq Ali, a young educated boy, when asked whether he was employed, said: “There is no used of my education,the government has no plans for unemployed.” A 40-year-old housewife, Shazia Irfan Chohan, said their area lacked a proper sewerage system. “We collected money on our own by going door to door in street to get the gutters cleaned,” she lamented.
Expert Opinion
According to political experts, the main competition in NA-241 will be between MQM-P’s Amir Moeen Peerzada and PTI’s Fahim Khan.
They believe that the MQM’s chances of electoral success may be marred due to party infighting. Political analyst Ammar Zaidi told Daily Times that even though the area had been an MQM-P strong hold in the past, it now seemed to be splitting at the seams.
Published in Daily Times, July 23rd 2018.
