Ghani offers to talk to PPP leadership if Naeem agrees to become deputy mayor

Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani has said Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman has started conceding his defeat in the upcoming mayoral election after sensing that he doesn’t have the support of the people.

Ghani, who is also the PPP’s Karachi president, stated this while talking to media persons here on Saturday.

He said he had disclosed before the May 9 violent incidents in the country that the newly elected local government representatives of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had informed their party leadership that they wouldn’t vote in favour of the JI’s candidate for the mayoral poll.

The labour minister said Rehman should tell how many of the newly elected local government representatives of his own party and those of the PTI had come when they were invited to Idara Noor-e-Haq for a reception.

He disclosed that a few UC chairmen of the PTI and not all the newly elected local government representatives had reached Idara Nooor-e-Haq after receiving the invitation as resultantly Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman had to cancel the reception.

Ghani said that he couldn’t do anything if the JI’s Karachi leader alleged that a newly elected UC chairman of the PTI had been abducted after he refused to vote in favour of the JI’s mayoral candidate.

He told journalists that the government was under an obligation to produce for th mayoral election the PTI’s UC chairmen who had been imprisoned after the registration of FIRs against them, but the government couldn’t compel any of these UC chairmen to vote in favour of the JI’s candidate.

To a question, he said that there was consensus within the PPP in finalising the party’s candidate for the Karachi mayoral poll and all reports doing the rounds in this regard were completely baseless.

Ghani said that besides himself, Sindh PPP President Nisar Khuhro, Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi, Karachi General Secretary Javed Nagori, Deputy General Secretary Najmi Alam, and other office-bearers of the party from all the districts were present at the time of the filing of nomination papers of Barrister Murtaza Wahab, showing that there was complete consensus in choosing the party’s mayoral election.

He said that on the basis of the ongoing collective efforts of all the key PPP leaders, the party’s candidates would win the upcoming elections for the Karachi mayor and deputy mayor. He said that all the dreams of Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman in this regard would be shattered on June 15.

To another question, Ghani volunteered to earnestly persuade the top leadership of his party if Rehman agreed to become the deputy mayor. He said it was the desire of the PPP to take along all political parties which had won seats in the local government elections in the city, to manage affairs of Karachi.