KARACHI: The polling to elect Karachi’s new deputy mayor will be held on April 18 (Thursday), ARY News reported on Wednesday.
The office of deputy mayor was vacated after the election commission declared Arshad Vohra as disqualified in March.
The city council’s 300 members will elect the new deputy mayor tomorrow.
A meeting to review the preparations for the election held here today with Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shalwani in chair.
The meeting was briefed that all arrangements for the polling have been finalized.
Commissioner urged the officials to make sure holding of the elections in a peaceful manner.
The work will be suspended at the KMC office tomorrow on the polling day. The polling will continue from 9:00 AM till 5:00 PM without any break, regional election commissioner Ali Asghar Sayal told the meeting.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had disqualified Arshad Vohra as deputy mayor of Karachi in March.
The decision came on a petition filed by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) seeking to de-seat Vohra for switching loyalty to the Mustafa Kamal-led party.
Vohra was elected as chairman of Union Council-49 of Karachi’s central district in the local council elections.
A five-member bench headed by ECP chief Justice (retd) Sardar Raza heard and decided the petition.
The then MQM-P convener Farooq Sattar had gone to the electoral body seeking disqualification of Vohra under the Local Government Act 2013.
He contended that Vohra elected as deputy mayor on MQM-P ticket and he did not relinquish his office after changing loyalty to PSP, which is sheer violation of the constitutional laws. He pleaded the ECP to issue a notification of Vohra’s disqualification.
, ARY News reported on Wednesday.){kind=link}