The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) declared PS-57 Badin – the constituency former Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza resigned from – vacant on Wednesday and will release the schedule of by-election there within two days. Sindh Assembly Speaker Nisar Ahmed Khuhro accepted Dr Mirza’s resignation on Monday and referred the matter to the ECP for conducting the by-election. “The seat is vacant and a schedule for conducting the by-election in the constituency would be released soon,” Provincial Election Commissioner Sono Khan Baloch told Pakistan Today.
Baloch is likely to discuss the schedule with the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (Retired) Hamid Ali Mirza, who arrived in Karachi on Monday and visited the ECP provincial office.
The chief election commissioner will stay in the city for a day or two. Baloch said that according to the constitution, the ECP has to conduct by-election in a constituency within 60 days after it falls vacant. However, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party-led Sindh government might not favour by-election there to avoid more controversy within the party and its political stronghold province in the post-Dr Mirza scenario. Therefore, it might request the ECP to postpone the by-election giving the ‘official’ reason that a large part of the population in the constituency has been displaced following the recent torrential rains.
After quitting from his ministry, party offices and provincial assembly seat, Dr Mirza is not following the PPP’s policies. Instead, some PPP lawmakers and leaders are ready to back him in his anti-Muttahida Qaumi Movement stance. Despite being a close friend of President Asif Ali Zardari, he is running his own politics.
As the style of politics in Sindh is based on ‘inheritance’, Dr Mirza and his family would not want to leave their constituency for others.
Sources close to his family said that Dr Mirza’s son Hasnain Mirza might run for the seat vacated by his father.
This would place the PPP in a difficult situation as the party would not be in a position to allot a ticket to Dr Mirza’s son because of his father’s politics. The PPP would also be reluctant to nominate any other person to contest against the Mirza family, as this might create political problems for it, especially when Hasnain’s mother, Dr Fehmida Mirza, is the speaker of the National Assembly and still in the party.
