MQM man set to be mayor

The ruling Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)-backed candidate Mustafa Kamal was yesterday ahead of his Jamaat-e-Islami-backed rival Naimatullah Khan for the slot of mayor of Karachi.

According to unofficial results, Kamal, a former Sindh minister, won the election for Karachi mayor, but the complete results were expected only late in the evening.

"The counting is on and we are leading with a big margin," Kanwar Khalid Younus, a senior MQM leader, told Gulf News. "The MQM has swept elections even in those towns where the opposition was claiming a majority," he said. The big surprise came from former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's hometown of Larkana where the Pakistan Muslim League won the elections.

In the third-phase of local elections, an electoral college of 2,314 councillors voted to elect the mayor or nazim of Karachi as well as for 18 areas of the city.

Unofficial results said that the MQM-backed candidates for nazims won even in the three areas of Saddar, Baldia and Site where the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Peoples Party claimed majority.

The MQM candidates also won in six other areas of Gulshan-e-Iqbal, North Nazimabad, Korangi, Landhi, Liquatabad and Malir.

The results of the nine remaining areas were awaited.

Naimatullah Khan, the Jamaat-e-Islami backed candidate and the former nazim, conceded defeat.

"I will congratulate Mustafa Kamal myself later in the evening. The elections were held in a peaceful manner," Khan, who was the joint candidate of all the opposition parties, told reporters.

Kamal said it was a one-sided contest. "The MQM had sealed its victory in the first phase of elections held on August 18 when its candidates swept the polls. Today's was just a formality," he said.

Younus said now all the opposition parties should support the new mayor to help solve the problems of Karachi.

"Under Naimatullah Khan, the areas dominated by the minority Christian, Aga Khani, Bhori and Shiite Muslim communities were ignored. But the MQM does not believe in discrimination. We will even provide funds to the opposition councillors for development work."

The MQM has been dominating Karachi's politics since the mid-1980s.