PPP secured votes after serving Karachi for 15 years, say Ghani

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was able to secure votes from the people of Karachi in the recent local government elections after serving them as the ruling party of the province for the past 15 years.

Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani, who is also the president of the Karachi chapter of the PPP, stated this on Wednesday while talking to media persons as he accompanied PPP candidate Captain (retd) Asad Alam Niazi when he submitted his nomination papers for the by-election in NA-244 District East of the city.

Ghani said the PPP had five members of the National Assembly and seven members of the Sindh Assembly from Karachi. “Jamaat-e-Islami [JI] leaders should tell us what magic wand they do possess on the basis of which they secured 84 or 85 seats in the local government elections in Karachi,” he said.

He said the PPP from day one had duly honoured the electoral mandate of the JI without raising any question about its victory in the polls. The JI while showing political humility in the same manner should have acknowledged the mandate of the PPP in Karachi, he added.

To another question, Ghani said that the status of the PPP as the single largest political party in Karachi as a result of the recent local government elections would remain unchanged no matter whatever campaign was launched by the JI.

Answering another question, the labour minister said the PPP had gained strength and secured victories all over Sindh where it was earlier not strong. Regarding the complaints of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), he said the Sindh government did not have the authority to abolish the delimitation of constituencies in Karachi and the concerned MQM-P should approach the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the annulment of these delimitations.

Ghani maintained that it was not the Sindh government, but the ECP that had carried out the delimitation of constituencies in Karachi.

He stated that the PPP was mindful of the problems being faced by fellow politicians from the MQM-P. The MQM-P, instead of criticising the Sindh government or the PPP, should first set its own house in order by identifying its own shortcomings, he added. The labour minister advised the -P leaders to make efforts to improve the image of their party in the city.

To a remark that the PPP candidate for the NA-244 by-election belonged to the family of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, Ghani said many members of the family of the PTI chief were wise persons.