PTI councilors ‘in contact’ with PPP ahead of oath-taking ceremony

KARACHI: A number of union council (UC) chairmen-elect belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were reportedly in contact with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ahead of oath-taking ceremony of the elected members of the Sindh local government (LG) election, ARY News reported on Sunday, citing sources.

According to details, the swearing-in ceremony of the elected members of the Sindh local government (LG) election is set to be held tomorrow (Monday).

Sources told ARY News that 43 PTI union council (UC) chairmen-elect will not take oath tomorrow, claiming that a number of UC chairmen were not ‘in touch’ with the party leadership.

Sources claimed that a number of union committee chairmen-elect belonging to Malir district, South and West were in contact with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Sources added that UC Chairmen – who failed to take oath – will not be able to vote in Karachi Mayor election.

Meanwhile, the Sindh government has issued directives that elected members of the Sindh local government (LG) election should not be barred from taking oath. The PPP also instructed all councilors-elect to attend the oath-taking ceremony tomorrow.

Earlier in the day, Sindh Minister for Labour and Information Saeed Ghani said that the PPP has nine members less if the PTI and Jamaat Islami join hands.

“We didn’t seek support from the PTI, we are being blamed for arresting the PTI members to prevent them from vote,” Saeed Ghani, PPP Karachi President said.

He said that the majority of PTI members had earlier clarified that they would not vote for Jamaat Islami. They also said that the PPP’s mayor will be in better position to address the problems of Karachi, People’s Party leader said. “They said they won’t give their shoulders to the JI,” Ghani said.

“Jamaat Islami was claiming that the PPP have delimited constituencies. The governments were always entrusted to carve out constituencies for local elections but now the law has changed, and the election commission was responsible for delimitation of the constituencies,” provincial minister said.

Party position

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was leading with 98 Union Councils (UCs) seats after it grabbed seven seats out of 11 Union Councils in Karachi during local government (LG) by-polls.

According to the party position released by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the results of Karachi’s 240 UCs out of a total of 246 have been finalized, while the results of six UCs have been withheld by the ECP.

Pakistan People’s Party successfully became the largest party by security 98 UCs, Jamaat-e-Islami secured 87 seats, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf remained third with 43 seats in UCs.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz grabbed 7 seats1, JUI-F won three seats in UCs, TLP and independent candidate emerged victorious in two UCs. ۔