In 2018, the Herald magazine assigned me the responsibility to report on electoral contests in eight districts of Sindh, namely Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar, Tando Muhammad Khan, Matiari, Dadu, Jamshoro, Hyderabad, and Sanghar.
Because the magazine had space constraints, only the excerpts from those reports were published in Herald’s July 2018 issue while the rest of it — approximately 5000 words — remained unpublished.
I have finally decided, in 2025, to put them all online in their original form because firstly, I worked hard for them and traveled far and wide in the intense June heat of Sindh so I think they should not remain unused; and secondly, I hope, someone some day may find them usable for some project that they might be doing. If that holds true even for one person, then I think the reports will have achieved their purpose.
Sixth in this series of eight posts is the electoral profile of Sindh’s district Matiari, as written in the summer of 2018. The constituencies may have changed over the years and may not necessarily match with the current numbering.
By: Bilal Karim Mughal in Matiari
District Matiari was carved out of the district Hyderabad in 2005, and was given one national seat NA-223 (previously NA-218) and two provincial assembly seats PS-58 Hala/Saeedabad (previously PS-43) and PS-59 taluka (subdistrict or tehsil) Matiari (previously PS-44).
Makhdoom Ameen Faheem of the Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) has won the national seat from Matiari no less than eight times from 1977 to 2013, with only exception being 1985 non-party elections which he boycotted.
Faheem was also the head of Sarwari Jamaat, which is one of the largest spiritual groups of Pakistan with followers around the world. Due to this, the family wields immense political influence as well.
This time, Faheem’s son Makhdoom Jamil uz Zaman, leader of the Jamaat after his father, is contesting elections on the national seat against Makhdoom Fazal Hussain of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA).
Hussain, a distant relative of Faheem, was formerly associated with the PPPP and contested elections at PS-44 (now PS-59) in 2002 elections, but lost to Syed Jalal Shah Jamote of the PML-F by 5922 votes. Subsequently, he didn’t contest in later elections and Faheem and his sons held national and provincial seats of Matiari.
At PS-58, Makhdoom Mahboob-uz-Zaman of the PPPP is contesting against Naseer Memon of GDA. Mahboob, son of Makhdoom Jamil-uz-Zaman, has never fought elections whereas Naseer Memon, fighting as an independent candidate had got 269 votes in 2013 elections here against Makhdoom Jamil-uz-Zaman of the PPPP (46,395 votes).
On the other hand, one Nazir Ahmed Shaikh of the Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) got 38,300 votes here, but he is not competing here this time. Noteworthy is the fact that Naseer Memon is brother to the Director-General of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Bashir Memon, and just days ago, the PPPP’s central election cell, in a letter to the caretaker Prime Minister, has asked him for Memon’s transfer because he was allegedly involved in facilitating his brother, who is a candidate from PS-58 Matiari-I.
Naseer Memon is also an officeholder in the Sindh Memon Ittehad and is said to enjoy support of public due to his social activities. Because Zaman’s credentials are only limited to being from the influential Makhdoom family, and Naseer’s past electoral performance hasn’t been remarkable, the balance, therefore, seems to be in the favor of Zaman here.
PS-59 (previously PS-44) will see a tough competition between Makhdoom Rafique-uz-Zaman of the PPPP and Syed Jalal Shah Jamote of the GDA. Jamote, who had served as an MPA on a PML-F ticket from 2002-2007 had joined PPPP in 2012. He was aspiring for a PPPP ticket in 2018 elections for the constituency, but the party decided to give Zaman the ticket. Feeling the air going against him, Jamote left the PPPP a few months ago and is now contesting from the platform of GDA.
There’s an atmosphere among the Syed and Hashmi communities of Matiari that the tickets for the seat should be given to locals of taluka Matiari, instead of Makhdooms who hail from the Hala taluka of the district. Jamote is a local of Matiari but Zaman is not, and therefore, the anti-PPP sentiment is present among locals because of the perceived lack of development works, preferring politicians from Hala over those from Matiari.
According to local social activists, this sentiment may create problems for this specific seat because Jamote is no unknown in politics of Matiari, and enjoys support of his community along with other disgruntled factions, prominent being Syed Pir Amir Ali Shah Hashmi, who remained an MPA from 2008-2013 from PS-44 (now PS-59) but didn’t get the ticket in 2013 elections. There are reports that his support will go for Jamote because of the PPPP’s preference of Makhdoom over a Matiari local for the seat of the Matiari taluka.
Another interesting character is that of Syed Mohammad Ali Shah Jamote, who lost to Rafique-uz-Zaman in the same constituency in 2013 on the PML-F ticket by only 3316 votes, which signifies his standing as well as that of the Jamote community in the constituency.
Jalal Shah Jamote, who fought as an independent candidate, got only 37 votes.
Mohammad Ali Shah Jamote later joined the PPPP and got elected as a Senator in 2018 on the PPPP’s ticket.
Nevertheless, the one factor that can always go in favor of the Makhdoom family is the vote of the Sarwari Jamaat, which can be a decisive factor above all others.
Accurate calls: PS-58
Unclear: NA-223, PS-59
Inaccurate: Nil
