2024 Sindh provincial election

Provincial elections were held in Sindh on 8 February 2024 to elect a new provincial legislature. On 5 August 2023, after the approval of the results of the 2023 digital census by the Council of Common Interests headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, elections have been delayed for several months, as new delimitations will be published on 14 December 2023. On 2 November 2023, the Election Commission of Pakistan announced, in agreement with the President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi, that the elections should be held on 8 February 2024. This election was held concurrently with nationwide general elections and other provincial elections.

Background
In the 2018 election, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) won 99 seats, gaining a majority in the Provincial Assembly. It became the third consecutive time that the PPP was able to form government in Sindh Since 2008.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) became the largest party in Karachi by winning 21 out of 44 seats from the city. It was the first time since 1988 that any party other than the MQM-P got the mandate to represent the city on the provincial and national levels. Overall, the PTI won 30 seats and became the second largest party, and the largest party in the opposition.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement - Pakistan (MQM-P), which was the largest and most popular party in Karachi, Hyderabad and other urban areas of Sindh, faced a tough challenge from the rising popularity of the PTI and received its worst ever result. It won only 21 seats and became the third largest party in the province. The MQM-P also opted to join the opposition.

In April 2022, after circumstances arising during a political crisis in Pakistan after the successful no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan, the MQM-P left the opposition and joined the PPP-led provincial government.

In September 2022, Former Prime Minister and Leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan announced to liberate Sindh from Zardari Mafia. He stated that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf will team up with the youth to liberate the poor and oppressed people of Interior Sindh from Feudal lords of Pakistan People's Party. This was the very first time some party leader threatened dominance of People's Party in Sindh and upcoming election will be a battle for survival of PPP in interior Sindh as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has support of the people of Karachi and Hyderabad and will be able to gain seats in Interior Sindh if they campaign well.

Merger of MQM factions
Since the appointment of Kamran Tessori as the Governor of Sindh, efforts began to merge breakaway factions of the MQM-P like the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) and the Farooq Sattar group back into the MQM-P to unite their vote bank to overcome the growing popularity of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The Mohajir Qaumi Movement Pakistan - Haqiqi (MQM-H) was also approached, but refused to merge the with the MQM-P.

On the evening of 12 January 2023 Syed Mustafa Kamal, the leader of the PSP, and Farooq Sattar announced their merger with the MQM-P in a press conference.

Ban on PTI from contesting as a party
On 22 December 2023, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided against letting the PTI retain its electoral symbol, arguing that the party had failed to hold intra-party elections. On 22 December, the PTI approached the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the ECP's order and hence, a single-member bench suspended the ECP's order until 9 January 2024. On 30 December 2023, the ECP filed a review application within the PHC, and days later, a two-member bench withdrew the suspension order as it heard the case. However, on 10 January 2024, the two-member bench had declared the ECP's order to be "illegal, without any lawful authority, and of no legal effect. On 11 January, the ECP challenged this ruling in the Supreme Court, and on 13 January, a three-member bench ruled in favor of the ECP and stripped the PTI of its electoral symbol. As a consequence of this ruling, the PTI could not allot party tickets to any of its candidates. Therefore, all candidates of the party will be listed as independent candidates and each will have a different electoral symbol.

Schedule
The schedule of the election was announced by the Election Commission of Pakistan on 15 December 2023.

Electoral system
The 168 seats of the Sindh Assembly consist of 130 general seats, whose members are elected by the first-past-the-post voting system through single-member constituencies. 29 seats are reserved for women and 9 seats are reserved for non-Muslims. The members on these seats are elected through proportional representation based on the total number of general seats secured by each political party.