mayorship ‘right’ of PPP, Nasir Shah

PPP is the largest party in Karachi with 104 seats.

PPP to announce its candidate for Mayor Karachi tomorrow,

Karachi_Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Saturday reiterated that the coveted slot of the port city mayor was the “right” of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) as it emerged as the largest party during the local body elections in the metropolis. In the recently concluded Karachi local bodies polls, PPP emerged as the largest party but it failed to secure a simple majority of 179 votes needed for the seat of Karachi mayor. PPP will need at least 22 seats even after an alliance with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The race for Karachi’s mayor office took an interesting turn last month when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) threw its weight behind Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman for the coveted post. After the latest development, JI’s Hafiz Naeem is in a strong position to be elected as mayor. The JI leader claimed that his party has enough numbers to establish a local government in the city. As per the statistics, the total seats of the JI would reach 191 after coalition with the PTI.

In a stament, the Sindh minister said that his party wanted to work with JI leader for the development of the port city. “Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman is respectable [to them] and they [PPP] wanted to work with him,” he added. Talking about the Karachi mayor elections scheduled to be held on June 15, the PPP leader said that no one has been pressurised but if someone decides to vote as per their “conscience” then they will respect their decision. Key PTI leaders were parting ways with the party after May 9 mayhem, he added.

The Sindh minister claimed that PPP is the largest party in Karachi with 104 seats. On May 21, Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani had claimed that PTI’s 43 UC chairmen will not vote for the JI candidate. According to a notification issued by the district returning officer on June 3 (today), PPP bagged the highest number of reserved seats with a tally of 51, followed by JI which ended up with 43 and PTI which secured 20 seats. The PML-N managed to clinch six reserved seats while the JI could win just one reserved seat in the metropolis.

Earlier,

PPP’s Sindh President Nisar Khuhro will announce the candidates for Karachi mayor and deputy mayor in a press conference tomorrow. Nisar Khuhro will address the press conference at Bilawal House Karachi at 03:00pm. The party’s Sindh president will announce the candidates for Town chairman and district council.

Meanwhile, sources claimed that the PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has finalised the names of the candidates. Former Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab will be the candidate for Karachi Mayor while Salman Murad will be nominated for deputy mayor, sources claimed. the ECP announced the schedule of the mayor and deputy mayor election in Sindh. As per details, the election of mayor and deputy mayor will take place on June 15 while the nomination paper can be submitted by June 9-10.

The ECP schedule stated that the Returning Officer will check the nomination papers on June 11 and the finalized list of candidates will be released on June 14. On June 16, the Returning Officers will announce the results whereas the successful candidates will take oath on June 19. Party position The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced the results of all the union councils (UCs) of Karachi.

According to details, the PPP emerged as the largest party in the City Council with 104 chairman seats. It later got 34 seats reserved for women, five each for minorities, labour and youth, and one each for disabled and transgender persons. The party has 155 members in total.

Meanwhile, JI won 87 chairman seats in the local government (LG) elections, after which it got 29 reserved seats for women, four reserved seats each for youth, labour and minorities, and one reserved seat each for transgender and disabled persons. The total number of JI in the City Council is 130. Moreover, the PTI won 43 chairman seats and after getting 14 reserved seats for women and two reserved seats each for youth, labour and minorities, its total number in the City Council is 63.