If he wins, Wahab to be first elected Karachi mayor belonging to PPP

In case Barrister Murtaza Wahab Wahab is elected as the Karachi mayor today, he will be the first elected chief of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).

Historically, Karachi has sided with anti-PPP forces whether they were in the form of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) that remained as the strongest political force of Karachi during 1990s and onwards till the 2018 general elections or the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and other religious parties that represented the city during the 1970s.

The JI has had two elected city government heads in the history of Karachi — Abdus Sattar Afghani who was elected as the mayor for two consecutive terms during the era of Ziaul Haq and Niamatullah Khan who was elected as the Nazim in the local government system introduced by Gen Pervez Musharraf in early 2000s. The MQM had boycotted those city government elections.

The elected city government heads of Karachi who belonged to the MQM include Dr Farooq Sattar, Mustafa Kamal and Wasim Akhtar.

During the interim periods, the PPP was able to instate its leaders as the city government head of Karachi like the recent appointment of Wahab as the KMC administrator, but the party has never been able to have its elected mayor of the city.

Former President of Pakistan, General Zia ul Haq, introduced the first popular local government elections in 1979. These elections were non-party based, meaning that political parties were not officially involved or recognised. However, despite the absence of party affiliations, political parties were still allowed to field their candidates in these elections.

During these elections, Abdul Sattar Afghani emerged as the victorious mayor. He was affiliated with the Jamaat-e-Islami party, which fielded him as their candidate for the mayoral position. Despite the non-party based nature of the elections, candidates often had political affiliations, and parties supported their preferred candidates without officially participating in the elections as organised entities.

After 1979, only six mayors were elected, Afghani was re-elected as the mayor and Umer Yousuf Deda as the deputy mayor of the city on November 9, 1979. They held their office till November 7, 1983.

The 2016 local government elections were the first party-based local government elections, which resulted in the MQM leader Wasim Akhtar being elected as the mayor who held his office till August 29, 2020.