Murtaza Wahab elected Ibrahim Hyderi UC chairman unopposed

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab has been elected unopposed as chairman of the Ibrahim Hyderi Town’s Union Committee. As per the Sindh Local Government Act, the directly elected mayor was bound to contest a by-poll from a union committee within a six-month timeframe. The election process for the chairman of the District Council also requires candidates to contest a Union Council election within a three-month window.

Wahab’s unopposed election marks a significant development in Karachi’s local government. He previously served as the directly elected mayor of Karachi, and has now secured the position of chairman of the Ibrahim Hyderi Town’s Union Committee 8.

The assistant commissioner of Ibrahim Hyderi and the returning officer has issued the form seven of Wahab’s unopposed victory. The Election Commission is yet to issue the notification confirming Wahab’s election as chairman of the union committee.

‘Not a registered voter’

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Jamaat-e-Islami candidates for local government by-polls challenged in the Sindh High Court on Friday the acceptance of nomination papers filed by Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab to contest by-polls for the slot of chairman of the union committees of Ibrahim Hyderi and Mauripur’s town municipal corporations.

Petitioners Mohammad Sabir Khan Abbasi and Mohammad Hussnain and others submitted that they were candidates for the office of UC-8 Ibrahim Hyderi and UC-3 Mauripur chairmen where Pakistan Peoples Party candidate and Mayor Murtaza Wahab had also filed his nomination papers.

They said Wahab is a voter registered in Union Committee, Gizri, Saddar Town, District South, and he had also submitted his nomination papers for contesting elections in that union committee. They further submitted that Wahab is a resident of neither these UCs nor of Saddar Town and in fact he is a voter registered in Mohallah Bagh Colony, Gizri.

The petitioners said that in view of his ineligibility for contesting the by-elections being not a voter of the said UCs, they had filed objections before the returning officer and the appellate tribunal; however, the latter dismissed their objections.

They further submitted that the returning officer and the appellate tribunal did not apply their judicial mind and even could not differentiate between the municipal and town municipal corporation, union committee and the union committee and union council, while disposing of the appeals against the acceptance of Wahab’s nomination papers.

They said the election tribunal did not consider the qualification criteria for election of the candidate to the office of the union committee’s chairman, which says that a person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as member of the council unless he is enrolled as a voter in the electoral rolls of the concerned council or ward.

The Supreme Court, while examining the issue, had categorically said that the very purpose of establishing the local government system is to ensure representation of the people in the governance at the grassroots level.

They submitted that superior courts have categorically decided that the person contesting the election directly should be a voter of the concerned council as per Section 35© of the local government law.

They said the purpose of the direct election is as simple as that the person contesting the election should be amongst the residents of the area, whereas the respondent who has shown his address in Gizri but is contesting election for chairman of union committees of Ibrahim Hyderi, and Mauripur cannot be said to be a person amongst the residents of the locality. They said there was a clear distinction between indirect elections on reserve seats and the direct election for a council. They said that in the indirect election, a person participating in the elections either for the council of metropolitan corporation or for the council of town municipal corporation may be a voter of the whole area coming under the jurisdiction of said council; however, a person contesting direct election for union committee must be a voter of the relevant union committee as per Section 35(1)© of Local Government Act 2013.

The petitioners also questioned the clarification issued by the law department on October 9, 2023, submitting that the clarification was a twisted interpretation of the law, whereas the law had categorically restricted the eligibility of contesting persons for any post in a local council in direct election that he must be enlisted as voter in the concerned ward or council. They said a person contesting election from the ward must be a voter of the said ward and a person who is contesting a direct election of a council in the union committee /union council must be a voter of the said union committee/union council.

They submitted that a person contesting an election of chairman of a union committee does not contest the election for the City council, KMC or Town Council; in fact, he becomes a member of the council as the chairman or vice chairman elected from his union committee.

They said persons contesting elections to reserve seats may contest the elections of the City Council or the town council and they should be the voters of any of the union committee coming within the jurisdiction of the City Council or town council, but the person contesting a direct election must be the voter of the council for which he is contesting the polls.

The court was requested to set aside the appellate tribunal order with regard to the acceptance of the nomination papers of Wahab and declare that he is ineligible for contesting by-elections from the UCs of Ibrahim Hyderi and Mauripur being not enlisted in the voters’ list of the said union committees.

The appellate tribunals of the West and Malir districts had dismissed a set of appeals against the acceptance of Wahab’s nomination papers for two union committee seats in Mauripur and Ibrahim Hyderi towns.

Wahab had filed nomination papers for the UC chairman post in Saddar Town’s UC-13, Mauripur Town’s UC-3 and Ibrahim Hyderi Town’s UC-8 to contest the local government by-elections scheduled for November