In Malir, a seminary stands in PPP’s way to power

Karachi

Pouring cold water on the Pakistan People’s Party bid to form its government in the Malir district’s municipality, a seminary in the area is wooing chairpersons and vice chairpersons of the union committees there to grab key slots.

The District Municipal Corporation Malir has 13 union committees, where, unlike the rest of the city, no political party has been able to gain a majority to form its government.

Four of them are in the Malir area while the rest are in Landhi Industrial Area on the other side of the Malir River bridge.

The PPP and the Pakistan Mulsim League-Nawaz have emerged as the key political parties in district, each grabbing four union committees. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement could only win two seats.

The Pakistan Rah-e-Haq Party (PRHP), an affiliate of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, has won the chairperson seats in two union committees in alliance with the PML-N
and the Jamaat-e-Islami, which secured the deputy slots there.

After the local government polls on December 5, the PPP and the PML-N both started their efforts to form their government in the DMC Malir.

However a seminary in Landhi Industrial Area, using the traditional influence that it enjoys in the area’s politics, is playing a key role.

On Sunday, Maulana Iqbalullah, the principal of the Jamia Usmania Talimul Quran, gathered elected chairpersons and vice chairpersons of eight union committees falling in Landhi Industrial Area and asked them to unite for the selection of the district chairperson.

With the exception of the PPP and the MQM, the recently elected representatives of all key political parties including the PML-N, the PRHP, and the Awami National Party as well as independent panels attended the gathering.

The elected representatives at the gathering included Maulana Zareen Hazarvi (UC-1), Dr Sher Saeed and Naeem Bukhari (UC-2), Maulana Ehsanullah Tikravi and Malik Muhammad Taj (UC-3), Feroz Khan and Muhammad Rehman Alaiwal (UC-4), Chaudary Akram (UC-5), Malik Muhammad Hakim and Raja
Naeem Akhtar (UC-7), Haji Amin Mana and Lala Waheed Zaman (UC-8) and Nazar Muhammad Baloch and Akbar Baloch (UC-9).

“The gathering was organised to jointly elect the chairperson and the vice chairperson in the DMC Malir so that the issues of the neighbourhoods can be addressed,” Rehman Bukhari, the spokesperson for the seminary, told The News.

He added that the seminary had supported most of the elected representatives in the polls.

“Today’s gathering shows that we have gathered the majority to form the government in the DMC.”

However, PPP leaders insist they are still in a position to form the government in the municipality.

PPP Malir information secretary Mir Abbas Talpur said the party’s district leadership, especially Jan Muhammad Baloch, who was elected vice chairperson in UC 10, had been holding meetings with the elected representatives.

“Some of the elected members who attended the seminary’s gathering are in touch with us,” he told The News.  

A vice chairperson in the Malir DMC, requesting anonymity, said the PML-N, after failing to muster the support of other parties, had asked Iqbalullah to decide the fate of district municipality slots. “After mutual consensus, all offices in the DMC Malir will be divided among the elected representatives according to their seats," he added.