Karachi: Six candidates have submitted their nomination papers to contest the upcoming election for choosing the next Karachi Mayor on June 15. However, in reality, it is going to be a tough electoral contest between two main contestants.
Out of the six candidates, three are from the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and three from Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). In fact, it is going to be the main contest between Barrister Murtaza Wahab of PPP and Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman of JI. The rest - two contestants each from the two contesting political parties - are the covering candidates for the two main contenders for the mayoral slot.
The polling for Karachi mayoral poll will be held at City Council Hall on June 15.
Barrister Wahab has been currently serving as the Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Law and the spokesman for the provincial government. He earlier served as Karachi’s Administrator from August 2021 to December 2022.
Hafiz Rehman is the chief of the Karachi chapter of JI and led a vigorous campaign of his party for contesting the local government polls held in the city earlier this year.
A recent amendment to Sindh Local Government Act-2013 allowed Barrister Wahab of the PPP to contest the election for Karachi mayor despite not being a member of the City Council. If Barrister Wahab wins the mayoral poll, he has to contest the local government by-election from any union committee of Karachi within six months to duly become a member of the City Council.
The JI has moved the Sindh High Court against this amendment, which according to it, was unlawfully passed to give undue benefit to the candidate of the ruling PPP.
Hafiz Rehman said the ruling party shouldn’t have passed the amendment from the Sindh Assembly just for the benefit of its own candidate after the local government elections were held in the province.
The PPP leaders in response said that Sindh Assembly had unanimously passed the amendment in question as no political party had any objection to the proposal to allow an unelected person to contest the mayoral election and become a City Council member at a later stage after becoming the mayor.
The JI has a total of 130 members in the City Council. Its candidate has been confident to win the mayoral poll after the JI reached an agreement with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to jointly contest the upcoming election. The PTI has 62 members of the City Council.
The ruling PPP has emerged as the single largest party in the City Council with 155 seats. Its candidate is likely to get votes from the council members from the allied parties of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI). The PML-N has 14 while JUI has four members in the City Council. A candidate should secure at least 184 votes from the City Council members to become the next mayor.
