KARACHI: In a first, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Murtaza Wahab won Karachi’s mayoral elections, defeating Jamat-e-Islami’s (JI) Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) held the election for the Karachi mayor and deputy mayor of the port city today at the Arts Council of Pakistan.
The mayoral contest was between Wahab and Rehman, as all the other candidates had withdrawn their nomination papers. The respective deputy mayor candidates of the PPP and JI are Salman Abdullah Murad and Saifuddin.
According to the entry register 303 elected members reached the polling station. Three elected members were brought in an armoured personnel carrier.
However, sources within ECP confirmed that 333 members reached the city council while 33 were absent.
The PPP is the largest party in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation City Council, with 155 seats. However, it is short of a simple majority required to have its mayor elected. The PPP has also secured the support of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, but their combined strength is also short of a simple majority.
The second and third largest parties in the city council are the JI and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with 130 and 63 seats respectively. As the PTI has supported the JI, their combined votes appear to be 193, which is more than the simple majority in the House of 367 members.
However, with the emergence of a forward bloc within the PTI, the result may go either way. In case Wahab wins, it will most probably result in allegations of horse trading by the JI and PTI and the two parties might approach the judiciary to nullify the election.
Lambasting JI for supporting PTI, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon said that Jamaat-e-Islami has joined hands with people involved in May 9 riots.
Meanwhile, Rehman questioned the returning officer saying that more than 30 elected members have gone missing.
“There are reports that these persons have been detained and it was the ECP’s responsibility to bring these people,” he said.
PTI rejects mayoral contest
Rejecting the “rigged mayoral contests,” the PTI said that the PPP has preferred rigging over elections from day one.
“The PPP tried to bar elected members from casting votes by arresting them,” the PTI said, warning that Wahab would suffer the same fate as Hamza Shahbaz did in the Punjab chief minister elections.
