For the first time since 1993, Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), will run for political office from his hometown of Nawabshah.
The district was renamed in 2008 as Shaheed Benazirabad in honour of the late Benazir Bhutto following her assassination in December 2007.
The last time Asif Zardari contested the elections from the district was 25 years ago, when he managed to win his constituency, following which his late wife formed a coalition government only to have it dismissed in November 1996 by her own lieutenant, Sardar Farooq Ahmed Khan Leghari, on charges of corruption and other violations against the constitution.
Originally called Nawabshah, in honour of Syed Nawab Shah who is believed to have donated his land during the British Raj, Shaheed Benazirabad is a district on the left bank of the Indus.
According to some estimates, the legendary Nawab gave away 600 acres of his property to the public.
The PPP government, out of respect for the generosity of the Nawab, decided to only change the nomenclature of the district, while maintaining the original name.
The district has four universities – including a medical college and an engineering university.
It has a population of 1.6mn, with half registered as voters.
The former president, Asif Zardari is poised to contest from of one of the two lower house of parliament seats recoded after the delimitation to NA-213 in the polls on July 25.
Since he last won here in 1993, the co-chairman of the PPP has never run from his home district.
His late father, Hakim Ali Zardari, had bagged the other national assembly seat at the time.
Incidentally, three years earlier, the younger Zardari had lost the constituency to Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi, of the National Peoples Party (NPP).
This time, he’s going up against Dr Qadir Magsi, the chairman of the Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party.
The July 25 polls will only be the second time Magsi runs for office, with his previous attempt in 1997 ending in a loss to the PPP, at his home district Thatta.
Magsi’s electoral contest though is merely a formality as the PPP’s and Asif Zardari’s considerable weight in the district appears to be unmatched.
Other challengers include Abdul Rauf Siddiqui of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), and Sardar Sher Mohammed Rind of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA).
The latter is a younger brother of Sardar Yar Mohammed Rind, a former federal minister, and leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Baluchistan.
The second national assembly seat, NA-214, extends to the Sakrand and Qazi Ahmed talukas (administrative units like tehsils).
Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah of the PPP has won the constituency three times in a row.
His father, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, also won twice, once with the PPP, and then with the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) in 1997.
Mustafa Shah’s competitors this time include Syed Zain Shah, the secretary general of the Sindh United Party (SUP) and a grandson of G M Syed.
PPP’s Ghulam Qadir Chandio had run against Zain Shah in 2013 in a closely fought battle.
Following the recently conducted delimitation, Benazirabad has lost one provincial assembly seat, reducing its representation in the Sindh Assembly from five seats to four.
The provincial constituency of PS-37, previously PS 26, has been merged with two other constituencies.
The number of national assembly seats, however, has remained unchanged at two.