JI warns PPP against using undemocratic means to impose Jiyala mayor

The Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, on Saturday warned the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) against using undemocratic means to impose a Jiyala mayor on the people of Karachi.He made the warning while addressing a press conference at the Idara Noor-e-Haq, the Karachi JI headquarters in the morning hours.

According to a statement issued by the JI, Rehman maintained that the JI had 193 votes in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation City Council after it secured the support of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for the mayoral election. He added that the required number of votes for the victory were 180. He said PPP leaders had confessed that had all their coalition partners voted for the PPP candidate, they would have only 166 votes in total.

Responding to PPP leaders’ claim that the next mayor of Karachi would be a Jiyala, the JI city chief asked how the PPP would reduce numbers of the JI votes or increase its votes from 166 to 180.

He said it was a simple confession on part of the PPP leaders that their party was planning to violate the law and Constitution as well as all the democratic norms in order to hijack the mandate of the people of Karachi and impose a representative of the feudal class on 35 million residents of the city. He recalled that PPP supremo Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had threatened to quit the federal government over the issue of schedule for the election pertaining to the city mayor.

The JI leader said the JI had been asking for a direct election for the city mayor but the PPP was not accepting the demand. He said that prior to the elections, the law was that an elected UC chairman would be able to contest for the slot of the city mayor, due to which Najmi Alam from the PPP and he himself from the JI contested the polls.

However, after the polls, Rehman added, the PPP amended the law to install a jiyala other than an elected representative of the people. Owing to the malicious nature and timing of the legislation, the JI was going to challenge the new amendment in a court of law, he announced.

He also criticised the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for what he said siding with the PPP.

Talking about the census in Karachi, he said the census was ended abruptly without completing the due process. No access to data was provided to any stakeholder, he lamented.