CURTAIN RAISER The constituencies of National Assembly (NA-253 to NA-256) and Sindh Assembly seats (PS-123 to PS-130) in Karachi’s District Central boast a literacy rate of over 92 per cent – one of the highest in the country. The total population of Karachi Central, comprising parts of Nazimabad, North Nazimabad, New Karachi, North Karachi, Liquatabad and Gulberg and adjoining areas of central district, according to the National Census Report 2017, is 2.972 million. The number of male registered voters in all four NA constituencies is 1,022,080 while 838,057 women here are registered to vote. The recent post-census delimitation has largely altered the electoral landscape of Karachi even though it remains to be seen to what extent it would influence the election results. Karachi Central has historically been considered a stronghold of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), but has faced a slash in its share of provincial seats. It now has eight provincial seats instead of the previous 10 and one national assembly seat. The various religious communities with a sizeable vote bank here – the Bohris, the Aga Khanis, Gujratis and Memon – have played the role of a swing vote in past elections. Political parties have always largely been aware of their electoral significance in dividing or consolidating vote banks. For the NA-253 seat, the contenders are: Usama Qadri of MQM-P, Sarwat Ijaz Qadri of the Pakistan Sunni Tehreek (PST), Muhammad Javed Ishaq of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Khalid Mumtaz of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), Syed Mustafa Kamal of the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP), Muhammad Ashraf Jabber of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), Muhammad Amjed Ali of Tehreek-i-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), Muhammad Farooq Khan of Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM-H) and Munim Zafar Khan of Muttahida Majlis-i-Ammal (MMA). In addition, 10 candidates are contesting as independents, brining the tally up to 19 candidates. The contenders for NA-254 are: Aafaq Shafqat of MQM-H, Arshad Abdulah Vohra of PSP, Rashid Naseem of MMA, Sheikh Salahudin of MQM-P, Liza Mehdi of PPP, Muhammad Aslam Khan of PTI and Muhammad Ateeq of TLP. Ten candidates are contesting as independents here, bringing the total number of contesters to 17. For the NA-255 seat, Arsalan Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP), Khalid Maqbool Siddique of MQM-P, Zafar Ahmed Siddique of PPP, Ata-ul-Mustafa Jameel Rathore of PSP, Faizan Ahmed of MQM-H, Muhammad Adeel of TLP, Mehmood Baqi Moulvi of PTI and Nasir-uddin Mehmood of PML-N have been campaigning as part of their electoral campaigns. Seven independent candidates are also trying their luck on this seat. In NA-256, Dost Muhammad Faizi of PML-N, Syed Sajid Hassan of PPP, Sofia Yaqoob of ANP, Amir Waliuddin Chisti of MQM-P, Muhammad Adil Siddique of PSP, Muhammad Ali Qadri of TLP, and Meraj-ul-Huda Siddique of MMA are contesting the polls. Nine other political party candidates are contesting as independent candidates. Over all, there are 159 candidates vying for eight Sindh Assembly seats. The total number of male voters in PS-123-1 is 110,243, while the number of female voters is 87,636. Rehana Anjum of PPP, Syed Aslam Ahmed Qadri of TLP, Syed Kamran Ali Rizvi of MQM-H, Umer Fayyaz of PML-N, Faizan Muslim of PTI, Muhammad Yousuf of MMA, Malik Matlob Ali Awan of PST, Waseemudin Qureshi of MQM-P and Naila Muneer of PSP are among the contesters here. Eleven independent candidates are also contesting for the seat. The total number of male voters in PS-124-2 is 120,583, and the number of female voters is 85,591. Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan of MQM-P, Siraj of ANP, Syed Muhammad Umer Sami of PST, Syed Mustafa Kamal of PSP, Shamim Mumtaz of PPP, Farhan Saleem of PTI, Muhammad Khalid Siddique of MMA, Mudassir Rehan of PML-N and Muhammad Farooq of TLP will be contesting here. Thirteen candidates are contesting as independent candidates on this seat. The total number of voters in PS-125-3 is 250,011. In this constituency, the electoral showdown will be between Syed Anwer Raza Naqvi of PSP, Syed Muhammad Abbas Jafri of PTI, Abdul Baqi of MMA, Abdul Haseeb of MQM-P, Muhammad Idrees of PPP, Muhammad Iqbal of TLP and Muhammad Shahid of MQM-H are envying each other. Eleven independent candidates are also in run. The number of male voters here is 137,789 while female voters are 118,509 in number in PS-126-4, from where Asif Ali Khan of MQM-P, Anila Liaquat of MQM-H, Zareena Shahid of PML-N, Abdul Raheem of TLP, Omer Omri of PTI, Muhammad Iftikhar Alam of PSP, Mumahhad Jawad Jelani of PPP and Muhammad Farooq Rehmatullah of MMA will contest the polls. Nine of the candidates are contesting as independent contesters. The total number of female and male voters in PS-127-5 are 223,048 from where Syed Mustafa Kamal of PSP, Kunwar Naveed Jameel of MQM-P, Shaheen of PML-N, Sheikh Mehboob Jelani of PTI, Sadam Abdul Samad of PPP, Abudl Razzaq of ANP, Faizan Khan of MQM-H, Muhammad Siddique Rathore of MMA and Muhammad Adeel of TLP are contesting. Twelve candidates are contesting here as independents. The number of women voters in PS-128-6 is 107,667, while the number of men registered to vote here is 129,395. In this constituency, Khizer Ali of MQM-H, Zohaib Ayubi of TLP, Syed Wajih Hassan of MMA, Fazal Qayyum of ANP, Muhammad Jawed Dar of PML-N, Muhammad Arif Hussain of PPP, and Nusrat Anwer of PTI are working hard to win the highest number of votes. Twelve people are contesting for this seat as independent candidates. The total number of voters registered in PS-129-7 is 232,162, from where Hanif Shah of TLP, Dil Muhammad of PPP, Syed Imran Ali Shah of PTI, Faisal Mioz Khan of PSP, M Taoqeer Randhawa of PML-N, Maaz Muqaddam of MQM-P and Niaz Ahmed of ANP are vying for membership of the Sindh Assembly. As many as 13 candidates are independently trying their luck for this seat. The number of men registered to vote in PS-130-8 is 138,036, while number of female voters is 119,467. Here, Jamal Ahmed of MQM-P, Khurrum Fayaz of PSP, Atif Mushtaq of PPP, Jahanzaib Alam of PML-N, Muhammad Riaz Haider of PTI, Muhammad Naseem Siddique of MMA and Naimat Khalil of ANP are contesting in the upcoming polls. The number of independent candidates vying for this seat is 15. Published in Daily Times, July 15th 2018.