Voting for the office of Karachi mayor and his deputy through a show of hands took place at the city’s Arts Council of Pakistan on Thursday, with PPP’s Barrister Murtaza Wahab and Jamaat-i-Islami’s Hafiz Naeemur Rehman in a head-to-head fight.
A result is yet to be officially announced.
Although the PPP lacks a simple majority, it has emerged as the single-largest party in the 366-strong City Council — the electoral college for mayor and deputy mayor — following the January 15 local government elections and subsequent allocation of reserved seats.
On the other hand, the JI Karachi chief has the support of the PTI, in return for which the former has offered the PTI the seat of deputy mayor.
However, not all is well yet for the JI-PTI coalition as cracks have surfaced within the PTI’s city chapter with a group of elected UC chairmen and vice chairmen announcing plans to not follow their party decision and to abstain from the voting process.
Both Rehman and Wahab reached the polling venue amid huge crowds of supporters. JI supporters could be heard chanting “Hafiz, Hafiz” repeatedly as the JI candidate entered the Arts Council premises.
Speaking to reporters outside the voting venue, Wahab claimed his party had the required numbers to win the elections.
“Our numbers are complete. If Jamaat-i-Islami’s numbers are higher, will respect them,” Wahab — also the former Karachi administrator — said.
He added, “We will have to come out of allegations. We will have to work together on Karachi’s master plan.”
Meanwhile, three detained PTI leaders, including Firdous Shamim Naqvi, were brought to the Arts Council of Pakistan in armoured police vans.
The PTI also shared a video of Naqvi exiting the van.
Entry to the venue was closed at 11am and members were not allowed to enter after that.
According to a Dawn.com correspondent, 32 out of the 62 PTI members failed to appear to cast their vote. Subsequently, the total number of UC members present was 333 out of 336.
The voting process is reported to be peaceful till now.
As the polling began, PPP Senator Saeed Ghani claimed the PPP had a strength of 173 with the PML-N and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) supporting it.
In a tweet, he said, “All 173 members of the PPP, PML-N and JUI-F have entered the election hall.”
In a prior tweet, he claimed the JI had not gathered its members even once in a show of power.
He said, “The PPP gathered its members twice during the election campaign for mayor/deputy mayor. The members’ attendance on both occasions was 100 per cent.
“Hafiz Naeem could not gather his members at one location even once. Today’s result is clear,” he added.
