KARACHI: With both sides claiming Karachi mayorship their “right”, tough competition is expected between the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) — the single largest party with 155 members — and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) — which claimed to have 191 council members on its side after forging a coalition with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — for the coveted slot amidst allegations of pre-polls rigging by the JI as the polling is scheduled for today.
PPP’s Murtaza Wahab and JI’s candidate Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman will face each other for the mayorship while PPP’s Salman Abdullah Murad will contest against Saifuddin for the deputy mayor slot. The polling will be held at the Arts Council of Pakistan.
Currently, no single party has a simple majority of 184 votes in the 367-strong house after the Local Government elections, the count that is needed to ascertain who wins the coveted seat of the port city’s mayor.
As per the latest statistics, the total number of the PPP, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) is 174. On the other hand, the JI has emerged as the second largest party with a total of 130 seats, including reserved seats, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) bagged a total of 63 seats. The alliance between the two parties stands at 193.
Out of the 367 members, 246 were directly elected chairmen of union committees and 121 elected on reserved seats allocated to parties on the basis of the number of UCs they won in the January 15 LG polls.
The Sindh’s ruling party; PPP claims the coveted slot of the port city mayor was their “right” as it emerged as the single largest party during the local body elections in the metropolis. The JI, however, blamed the PPP for rigging.
Out of Karachi’s total 25 town municipal corporations (TMCs), candidates on 16 seats returned unopposed, including PPP’s 8 and JI’s 6. While the PTI succeed winning two TMCs unopposed.
In the previous LG setup, the seven Karachi districts were divided into district municipal corporations (DMCs) but in the new setup, the DMCs have been replaced with 25 TMCs comprising different number of vice-chairmen of union committees as well as members to be elected on different reserved seats.
Karachi has now 246 union committees and their elected chairmen represent the KMC’s City Council, which will have a total of 367 members after the indirect election of people on 121 reserved seats.
The house of 367 will elect a mayor and a deputy mayor by a show of hands. The 25 TMCs will separately elect a chairman and vice chairman from its total members by a show of hands.
