Pakistan: Murtaza Wahab takes oath as new mayor of Karachi

Karachi: Barrister Murtaza Wahab, a leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has taken oath as the new mayor of Karachi at a ceremony held at Bagh-e-Jinnah in the city centre and attended by diplomats and dignitaries from various walks of life.

Salman Abdullah Murad, who also belongs to the ruling PPP, took oath as Karachi’s Deputy Mayor. It is the first time that the PPP, which has been ruling Sindh for the past 15 years, has clinched the coveted posts of Karachi’s mayor and deputy mayor. Wahab defeated Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman of Ja-maat-e-Islami in a closely contested election.

Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh, Ejaz Anwar Chauhan, administered the oath to both Mayor and Deputy Mayor. The notables who attended the ceremony included the PPP Chairman and Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, Governor, Kamran Khan Tessori, members of the federal and provincial cabinet, and senior PPP leaders.

After the oath-taking, outgoing Karachi’s Administrator, Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rehman, presented the symbolic key of the city to the new Mayor as a move to formally hand over to him the affairs of the provincial capital.

Later, Barrister Wahab assured media persons that during his mayoral tenure, he would try his best to end political animosity and promote fraternal ties among different communities for the development and progress of the city.

He said that as the new mayor, he wouldn’t discriminate among 25 towns in the city as development works would be carried out in all of them without any discrimination irrespective of the political affiliation of the newly elected local government representatives of these areas.

He said the improvement of road infrastructure, upgrading of water supply, and sewerage systems, would be key priority areas of his administration.

He conceded that Karachi’s expansion over the last several years had taken place in a haphazard manner as different agencies responsible to run the city lacked coordination with each other.

The widespread use of wall graffiti for advertisement and dumping of municipal waste by people at any place of their convenience had emerged as the major civic issues diminishing the beauty of Karachi, he said.

He assured that there would be marked improvements in garbage disposal and public transport systems of the city.

Wahab told media persons that due preventive measures were being taken to avoid the situation of urban flooding in the city if heavy rain occurred during the upcoming monsoon.