“Weeks-long talks” between the two former allies — the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) — over seat adjustment in National Assembly’s constituency NA-242 (Karachi’s Keamari district) ended up in failure, it emerged on Friday.
According to the latest move, the PML-N — former ruling party — withdrew the nomination papers of its president Shehbaz Sharif from NA-242 at the 11th hour and fielded Khawaja Shoaib in the constituency, where he would face MQM-P Senior Deputy Convener Syed Mustafa Kamal — the former Karachi mayor.
Earlier, reports were circulating on mainstream and social media that the MQM-P is likely to withdraw Kamal from the NA-242 in favour of the PML-N.
Talking to journalists outside the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), PML-N leader Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan confirmed that the former prime minister would not contest form NA-242, saying: “No candidate can contest for more than two seats.” He further added, “I have come to withdraw the nomination papers of Shehbaz Sharif.” On the other hand, the MQM-P gave its go-ahead to Ali Khursheedi to contest the upcoming elections from PS-119 (Karachi-West).
It is pertinent to mention here that Shehbaz on December 29 had announced filing his nomination papers for the polls from Karachi’s NA-242 constituency.
He had contested from the NA-249 constituency — as per the previous delimitation — of Karachi in the 2018 general elections which he lost to Faisal Vawda, the then-Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, by a slight margin.
