KARACHI: Given that water shortage remains a major issue in the areas falling under PS-111 constituency, it is no surprise that various candidates in the run for Sunday’s election have made water scarcity the core issue of their campaign.
While political parties and their candidates have been running lukewarm campaigns in their strongholds, some have been assuring people to restore their water troubles.
While PTI’s candidate for the by-polls, Shahzad Qureshi, is confident that he will win since his party has won this seat in the general elections of both 2018 and 2013, Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) candidate, Fayyaz Pirzada, has been trying to mobilise voters through corner meetings in katchi abadis which are a stronghold of PPP.
Pirzada recalled that the election campaign of the PPP candidate in the July general elections revolved around the water issue.
He added that the Sindh government’s Local Bodies Minister Saeed Ghani has already been directed by the Sindh chief minister to carry out feasibility of the desalination plant for provision of potable water to the residents of DHA and Clifton areas.
“I’m trying to highlight the genuine problems of my residents with the limited resources I have to reach out to the public,” he told The Express Tribune.
PTI and PPP are powers in the Centre and in Sindh respectively, and are in favour of the desalination plant but according to Nasir, the reason for Karachi’s water scarcity lies in the water theft by tanker mafia which is active in Karachi and deprives people of their basic rights.
Other candidates in the by-polls of PS-111 include representatives from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).
Jamat-e-Islami and Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz have not fielded their candidates.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2018.