Karachi mayorship right of PPP, says Saeed Ghani

KARACHI: Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani on Monday reiterated that the coveted slot of Karachi Mayor was the “right” of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as “it emerged as the largest party during the local government (LG) elections”, ARY News reported.

Speaking on ARY News programme ‘11th Hour’, the provincial minister said that his party would have retreated if its numbers of Karachi Mayor slot were not ‘enough for winning the election’.

However, Saeed Ghani said, the coveted slot of Karachi Mayor was the “right” of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as “it emerged as the largest party during the local government elections”.

In response to a question, he said it was the PPP’s right to take advantage of division in Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). “Some of the PTI representatives are displeased with the politics of Jamat-e-Islami (JI),” he claimed.

He further claimed that PTI elected representatives will not vote for JI’s candidate for Karachi Mayor due to “differences within themselves’, adding that most of the PTI UC chairmen will remain abstain from election.

Citing the Supreme Court (SC) order in former Punjab chief minister (CM) Pervaiz Elahi’s case, Saeed Ghani said that decision of the parliamentary party is final. “PTI’s 32 UC chairmen out of 62 were against Hafiz Naeem, and that’s the decision of parliamentary party,” he added.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that more than 30 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) UC chairmen and vice chairmen have announced not to take part in upcoming elections for Karachi mayor and deputy mayor.

Over 30 PTI UC chairmen and vice chairmen held a session in Karachi and decided not to participate in elections for the Karachi mayor and deputy mayor on June 15. They announced not to vote in favour of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) mayor candidate Hafiz Naeemur Rehman.

It emerged that PTI UC chairmen will remain absent on voting day. The UC chairmen said that they knew the ground realities in Karachi and that the elected local government (LG) representatives have the right to make decisions independently.

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“The local leaders took decisions without holding consultations with them and they are not agreeing on the decisions of the office bearers of the PTI Karachi Division.

They added, “JI has taken advantage of the current situation and elected its representatives on the reserved seats. We are not facing any kind of pressure nor accept it in the future.”

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.