PML-N announces support for PPP to get mayor’s slot

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has announced its support for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in the election of the Karachi mayor after the local government polls.

PML-N Sindh President Shah Muhammad Shah made the announcement to this effect on Saturday when a delegation of the PPP led by Sindh Labour and Human Resource Minister Saeed Ghani met him at his residence.

The PPP delegation comprised the party’s provincial general secretary Waqar Mehdi and Najmi Alam.

The two sides agreed that as the two parties were allies in the federal government, they should work together in Sindh and cooperate not just for the upcoming mayoral elections but also for all the upcoming by-elections and the next general polls in the province.

Talking to the media after the meeting, Ghani, who is also the Karachi PPP president, said that every successful political party had the desire to clinch the post of Karachi mayor, but morally the largest party had the first claim to the post, he said.

He said the PPP had emerged as the single largest political party after the local government polls in Karachi.

The PPP had the desire to take along the Jamaat-e-Islami as the people of Karachi had also reposed confidence in the JI, he added. “We need to work together to serve the residents of Karachi in the best possible manner,” he said.

Ghani expressed gratitude to the PML-N for offering full support to the PPP in the upcoming elections for the mayor. He expressed the hope that the PPP would be supported by other political parties

as well.

To a question, the Karachi PPP president remarked that his party had emerged with 96 seats as the single largest party in Karachi after the latest polls and the JI was the runner-up with 83 seats.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has won 43 seats while the PML-N has secured eight seats in the latest polls.

He said the next mayor of Karachi would function according to the powers prescribed for the mayoral position in the provincial local government law. “We don’t have the powers for the mayor in our pockets,” said Ghani while responding to the JI’s criticism of mayoral powers.

To another question, he said that it was their foremost desire to jointly work with the JI in the local government setup of Karachi.

The labour minister said the PPP had clinched victories whenever elections were held in Karachi in a fair manner. He said that in the latest polls, the PPP had emerged successful in such areas of the city that were traditionally considered its strongholds.

He mentioned that the PPP had not secured a landslide victory in any area of Karachi whereas the JI had secured a surprising victory by clinching the most number of seats in Korangi, East, and Central districts.

He mentioned that the JI had secured up to 38 seats from a district of Karachi where in the earlier local govt polls, it had failed to secure even a single UC.

Ghani said that his real brother should not have lost the polls had the PPP committed rigging in the elections.

The PML-N Sindh president said that both parties had agreed to work together for the development and progress of Karachi.

He said that both the parties had agreed to nominate the candidate for the Karachi mayor on a meritorious basis. He hoped that rest of the stakeholders would also provide support in this regard.

He mentioned that the PML-N and PPP had jointly contested the latest local government elections in a number of union committees in Karachi and the alliance would continue as well in the upcoming by-elections and general polls in the province.