PPP, JI compete for Karachi Mayor today

Karachi: The election for mayor and deputy mayor of Karachi is taking place today (Thursday) for which Murtaza Wahab of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rahman of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) are competing. Whereas PPP's Salman Abdullah Murad and JI's Saifuddin Advocate are in the ground for deputy mayor.

The election battle for chairman and vice chairman of nine towns Municipal Corporation will also take place today, in 11 towns the candidates have won unopposed.

Elected members are not allowed to use their mobile phones in the polling hall. People's Party leader and elected Union Council (UC) chairman Najmi Alam reached Arts Council. The elected chairman of Jamaat-e-Islami have started reaching Arts Council.

Election process for Karachi Mayor is being held at Arts Council. Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officials stated that media is not allowed to cover the polling process through live cameras.

According to the officials, four counters have been set up for the identification of members, the voting card will be issued after showing the identity cards to the elected representative.

The polling has formally started by show of hands at 11:00 am. The elected members got the voting card by showing their identity cards.

Notably, Karachi City Council consists of total 367 members in which 246 union committee chairmen are directly elected and there are 121 specific seats that are allotted to parties in proportion to the number of UCs won in the local elections on January 15.

A UC result has been withheld, the House now consists of 366 members and a party with the support of 184 members can win the Karachi Mayor and Deputy Mayor elections today.

According to officials, PPP has emerged as the single largest party in the city council with 155 seats, while JI is the second largest party with a total of 130 seats. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won a total of 63 seats, including 14 seats for women, two seats reserved for labour, minorities and youth and one each for disabled persons and trans-genders.

PTI has announced the support of JI candidate Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman for the mayor of Karachi who stated that support of more than the required number of members has been received for the mayor.