Karachi: The local government elections in Karachi and two other main cities of lower Sindh will be held on July 24, 2022 as the process will also simultaneously begin for choosing the mayor of the provincial capital through an indirect poll.
A total of 20,180 candidates have been contesting the local government polls to be held in 16 districts of Karachi, Hyderabad, and Thatta. The polls in the rest of Sindh were conducted last month in the first phase with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) winning the vast majority of the seats.
A recently held meeting to finalise the arrangements for the polls with Sindh Chief Secretary, Dr Sohail Rajput, in the chair was told that around 60,000 police personnel would be deployed to ensure peaceful conduct of the elections in the three cities.
Almost all the major political parties have been enthusiastically contesting the local government elections with the aim to win majority of the constituencies in the city so to brighten their chances to grab the coveted position of mayor of Karachi whose election will be held indirectly in the next phase. People of Karachi on July 24 will elect 246 chairmen of union committees (UC) in the city. The UC chairmen in the City Council, in the next phase, will elect the Karachi’s mayor.
The PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, Pak Sarzameen Party are some of the main contenders participating in the local government polls of Karachi.
Former prime minister, Imran Khan, is coming to the city to address the election rallies as the PTI is very keen to win the local government polls as it won the majority of the National Assembly’s seats from Karachi in 2018 general elections. Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman of Jamaat-e-Islami is also vigorously campaigning to become Karachi’s next mayor to resolve several pressing civic problems of the city.
The Chief Secretary told the meeting that some 2573 polling stations had been declared most sensitive in the three cities from the security point of view as closed-circuit television cameras would be installed for their electronic surveillance.
Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh, Ejaz Anwar Chauhan, said that anyone trying to disturb peace on the polling day would be sternly taken to task as per the law without considering the political affiliation of the miscreant.
He said that every possible step would be taken to ensure that elections were held in a peaceful and transparent manner.
The Chief Secretary assured the meeting that all the due facilities would be provided for ensuring that pregnant women, senior citizens, transgender people among the voters wouldn’t face any problem while casting their votes.
