KARACHI   -   No less than 30 Union Coun­cil Chairmen belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf par­ty Thursday failed to reach the venue during the election, pav­ing the way for Pakistan Peoples Party’s Barrister Murtaza Wahab to get elected as Mayor Karachi. 

Wahab secured 173 votes followed by Jamaat-e-Islami’s Hafiz Naeem-ur- Rehman with 160 votes.

PPP’s Salman Murad emerged victorious for deputy mayor slot with 173 votes while JI’s Saif-ud-din got 160 votes and stood runners-up.

Returning Officer Nazar Ab­bas told the media that in show of hands procedure, PPP’s Wa­hab and Murad elected as may­or and deputy mayor respective­ly receiving 173 votes each. He said that JI’s Naeem-ur-Rehman and Saif-ud-din could get 160 votes each.

The PPP’s both mayor and deputy mayor aspirants howev­er failed to get the simple major­ity in the council. In a council of 367 (currently 366 with a result on one UC pending) members, a candidate had to seal simple majority by securing 184 votes to become the city mayor but as per the law, a candidate could also be elected after receiving majority of votes cast by mem­bers present.

The Election of Commission of Pakistan had declared Arts Council of Pakistan as the poll­ing station where private me­dia both print and electronic had been barred for coverage. The PPP was the single larg­est party, having 155 members followed by the JI with 130 UC Chairmen. The PTI stood third with 62 members. The tough competition was expected be­tween the PPP and JI as both the parties were able to get support from other parties.

Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman offi­cially had support of 192 mem­bers after publicly announce­ment by the PTI leadership while Wahab of the PPP had 173 members in his favour with the help PML-N and JUI-F. When the voting began, 334 members—155 of PPP, 130 of JI, 31 of PTI, 14 of PML-N and four of JUI-F— appeared to cast their votes while at least 31 UC Chairmen of the PTI remained absent despite the party’s repeated directives to vote for the JI’s mayor and deputy may­or candidates. PTI’s Firdaus Shamim Naqvi—who was currently detained in a case pertaining to 9th May’s cha­os—was brought to the polling sta­tion but he did not cast the vote, ap­parently to keep his Sindh Assembly membership. Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pa­kistan’s sole UC Chairman also ab­stained from voting.

‘Clashes outside arts council’ Police arrested at least eight suspects out­side the arts council as clash erupted between the supporters of the PPP and JI. The workers of both the sides chanted slogans and pelted stones at each other. The scuffle forced police and Rangers to intervene and law en­forcers detained eight suspects.

BILAWAL FELICITATES NEWLY ELECTED LOCAL BODIES REPRESENTATIVES

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Par­ty (PPP) and Foreign Minister Bil­awal Bhutto Zardari also extended congratulations to the newly elect­ed heads and deputy heads of local bodies from Karachi to Kashmore on their historic success. In a statement issued by Media Cell Bilawal House here, the PPP Chairman congratulat­ed newly elected Mayor Karachi Mur­taza Wahab, Mayor Hyderabad Mu­nicipal Corporation Kashif Shoro, Sukkur Municipal Corporation Mayor Arslan Shaikh, Mirpurkhas Municipal Corporation Mayor Abdul Rauf Ghori, Nawabshah Municipal Corporation Mayor Rashid Bhatti and Larkana Municipal Corporation Mayor Anwar Ali Lohar. Bilawal also expressed his best wishes to the successful chair­men and vice chairmen of all local bodies, including district council, mu­nicipal and town committees as well as union councils, who were success­ful in the elections held on Thursday. Bilawal while thanking the parties in PDM including PML-N and JUI-F, said that he was grateful to the coalition parties and said due to their cooper­ation a historic victory was achieved.

JI REJECTS RESULTS

Meanwhile, the JI rejected the re­sults and termed the same ‘unconsti­tutional and undemocratic’. Talking to media, JI Karachi Ameer and may­or candidate Hafiz Naeem-ur-Reh­man also announced to observe a ‘Black Day’ today (16th June) on ap­peal of JI Pakistan Ameer Sirajul Haq as the party decided to observe the protest demonstrations across the country. “The PPP killed the democ­racy by snatching the ‘mandate of Ka­rachiites’ with the help of state ma­chinery and the Election Commission of Pakistan,” he alleged. He said that the Sindh government did not pro­duce 31 elected UC chairmen belong­ing to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf despite court orders.