An agricultural district suffering from a water shortage, and a historically winning party challenged by a disgruntled stalwart, what is going on in Mirpurkhas?
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those reports were published in Herald’s July 2018 issue while the rest of it — approximately 5000 words — remained unpublished.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.
First in this series of eight posts is the electoral profile of Sindh’s district Mirpurkhas, 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 Mirpurkhas
Mirpurkhas is an agricultural district which has been badly hit by acute water crisis. Local activists say that the fields have been deprived of irrigation water for the past many months for which people hold the provincial government responsible.
Whether or not this translates into an electoral nightmare for the Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarians (PPPP) is yet to be seen.
However, considering the past voting trends in the district, PPPP seems to be in a difficulty only at the constituencies of PS-48, PS-49 and NA-218 because of the disgruntled Ali Nawaz Shah and his son.
The district has 6 total seats — NA-218 to NA-219 for national assembly and PS-47 to PS-50 for Sindh Assembly — and hasn’t lost any seat in the new delimitations.
The NA-218 Mirpurkhas-I, which comprises of the talukas (subdistrict or tehsil) of Sindhri, Hussain Bux Mari, Mirpurkhas, and areas of Shujabad is going to see a stiff competition between Syed Ali Nawaz Shah — former MNA, MPA, Senator and Federal Minister from the PPPP ticket — who is now contending as an independent candidate against Pir Hassan Ali Shah of the PPPP, who is the nephew of Pir Shafqat Hussain Shah Jillani, former MNA from the same constituency.
Syed Ali Nawaz Shah, an old stalwart of the PPPP is contesting as an independent candidate because the party ticket was awarded to Pir Hassan Ali Shah. The PPPP had swept the last elections from here by winning all seats except one provincial seat which was won by Muttahida Qoumi Movement (MQM) candidate Zaffar Ahmed Khan Kamali.
Shah is also contesting against his own nephew Zulfikar Ali Shah at PS-48 which comprises areas of taluka Sindhri, where a significant vote bank of PML-F exists.
If Shah reaches a settlement with the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) to give tough time to the PPPP, he is projected to win at NA-218 and PS-48.
At the NA-219, PPPP has awarded a ticket to Mir Munawar Ali Talpur, spouse of Faryal Talpur. Mir was an MNA on PPPP ticket in the last elections as well. It is believed that he will win his seat again because the GDA will field Arbab Ghulam Rahim against Talpur with the support of Syed Ali Nawaz Shah, but the vote may end up getting divided, ultimately helping Talpur, whose family is already strong in the district.
PPPP is fielding former senator and former MPA on reserved seats, Hari Ram Kishori Lal against Arbab Ghulam Rahim of the GDA at PS-47. The former senator enjoys a strong position here because the PS-47 comprises urban Mirpurkhas, and the recently included area of the taluka Hussain Bux Mari.
The seat — previously numbered as PS-64 Mirpurkhas-I — was won by the MQM in the last elections because urban Mirpurkhas has significant vote bank of MQM, but the inclusion of Hussain Bux Mari in new PS-47 may tilt the result in favor of Hari Ram because Hussain Bux Mari has a significant population of minority community. Also, although MQM has fielded Mujeebul Haq from PS-47, local analysts think that Hari Ram might win because the opposition is not strong enough.
At the PS-49, Syed Shuja Muhammad Shah, son of Syed Ali Nawaz Shah is standing against Noor Ahmed Bhurgri of the PPPP and Mir Atiq of the GDA. Bhurgri is a former MPA from the same constituency and Shuja Muhammad Shah can give him a tough time because of Ali Nawaz Shah’s position.
Arbab Ghulam Rahim of the GDA is competing for the PS-50 against Mir Haji Hayat Talpur of the PPPP, former MPA from old PS-66.
Since no areas of Tharparkar and Umerkot are now included in the Mirpurkhas district, Rahim is in a weak position here and Talpur has an edge, because of having served as an MPA seven times including the last tenure i.e. 2013-2018.
Accurate calls: NA-218, NA-219, PS-47
Inaccurate calls: PS-48, PS-49
The above report projected Mir Haji Hayat Khan Talpur of the PPPP as the projected winner at PS-50, however, the PPPP’s final candidate for the seat in question was Mir Tariq Ali Khan Talpur. Nevertheless, PPPP bagged the seat regardless of the actual candidate.
