Wahab promises to bury politics of hate as he takes oath as Karachi’s mayor

With the promise to work with true faith and allegiance to Pakistan and strengthen its solidarity and prosperity through good governance, the first ever Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) mayor of Karachi, Murtaza Wahab, took the oath of his office on Monday at the Bagh-e-Quaid-e-Azam.

The PPP’s deputy mayor, Salman Abdullah Murad, also took oath along with Wahab. Wearing black crisp sherwani and white shalwar, and draping the PPP flag around his shoulders, Wahab seemed beaming with joy and pride for being elected as the city’s 29th but the PPP’s first mayor.

Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh Ejaz Anwar Chohan administered the oath to Wahab and the deputy mayor.

There were two conspicuous differences from the last mayoral oath taking ceremony that was held in August 2016. Then, the elected mayor of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Wasim Akhtar, was brought to the ceremony in an armoured vehicle from jail to take his oath. That ceremony also had no presence of the Sindh government high-ups and PPP top leadership.

However, this time around, not only Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah was present, but also the party’s chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was also there along with other leaders of the party, including former Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah.

Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori, businessmen, diplomats and people from all walks of life, including Wahab’s sister, wife, brothers and children, were also present on the occasion.

Just like the mayoral election, the oath-taking ceremony also echoed with slogans of the PPP, to which the party leaders kept responding.

No elected chairmen of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which is the second largest political party in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation City Council, was present during the oath taking ceremony.

The JI has challenged the election of Wahab and filed a petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) seeking to de-notify, suspend and cancel his election as the mayor.

After taking the oath, Wahab thanked his party leaders, including Bilawal, Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur, for having him elected as the mayor.

He said the people of Karachi had elected a PPP mayor and they wanted to mend the broken hearts.

He said he would serve the city and bury the politics of hate. Later, the traditional key of the city was handed over to Wahab by the outgoing KMC administrator, Dr Saifur Rehman.