Jail not to hinder Waseem Akhtar’s election as Karachi mayor

 ISLAMABAD: The presumptive mayor of Karachi, Waseem Akhtar, is going to be elected and to operate from prison for being behind bars due to his nomination in a dozen criminal cases, if his Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) did not abandon him, fielding his replacement. Under the Sindh Local Government Act, at the time of filing candidacy papers the physical presence of Waseem Akhtar or any other such contestant before an official designated by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to conduct the mayoral election is not mandatory. D etention is no legal handicap to enter the race. Because of its impressive victory in the local council polls, the MQM is in a comfortable majority to elect its representative as the mayor. Immediately after the polls, it had nominated diehard leader Waseem Akhtar as its candidate. After the completion of the ECP with the appointment of its four members, the electoral body will announce the schedule for election of heads of the local governments in Sindh anytime. Previously, it was suspended after the ECP became dysfunctional due to retirement of its members. Since Waseem Akhtar has not been convicted by any court of law, he is not barred from contesting themayoral election. So far, he is only an accused and not a convict. Even after his sentencing by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), which is hearing his cases, and any other judicial forum where he would be arraigned after investigation, he would have the right of appeal to challenge such rulings. Only after conclusive judgment by exhausting all appellate facilities, he would be disqualified from vying for an elected office if his conviction was upheld by superior courts. Because of the peculiar circumstances the MQM is facing in Karachi, it had quickly picked up hardliner Waseem Akhtar to be its mayor. Its choice had not gone well in the quarters,which are busy cleaning up themess in Karachi that accumulated over several years, rocking the peace and business activities in the mega city. However, itwill be quite difficult for these circles to block the election of mayor and heads of other local governments in Sindh once the ECP would release the schedule,which it has to issue in a matter of days as per the mandatory legal requirements. Although there is no legal value or worth of a ‘confession’ in custody, Karachi police have claimed thatWaseemAkhtar admitted during investigations that the bloodshed, in which more than 50 people were killed in Karachi on May 12, 2007, took place on his orders. On that day, the then suspended Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had gone to Karachi in connection with his campaign against President Pervez Musharraf’s severe action of making him dysfunctional. The situation created there had forced him to return fromthe Karachi airport. At the time, Waseem Akthar was the homeminister of Sindhwith his party being a blue-eyed of the dictator. Even after the passage of nine years, the perpetrators of this heinous crime have not been asked questions. It is the first time that this case has been revived to some extent with the police claim regarding Waseem Akhtar’s confession. On that very day, Musharraf had addressed a public meeting at the D-Chowk in Islamabad where he had declared that people had demonstrated their might in Karachi, referring to the bloody mayhem there. There are several instances when some imprisoned federal or provincial legislators continued to hold the membership of the elected bodies. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Asif Ali Zardari is one of them. Presently, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly member Ziaullah Afridi is in prison and keeps attending the sessions of the legislature after the speaker issues his production orders. Generally, the federal and provincial speakers obligewhile dealing with the cases of lawmakers, who happened to be in jail.Mere detention on any criminal charge doesn’t lead to disqualification of an elected office holder. However, as the situation stands now, there are little or no chances that Waseem Akhtar will be allowed to walk out of jail in near future. Obviously, the mayor operating from prison would be hardly useful for the MQM and helpful for Karachi because the job direly requires his physical presence considering the paramount problems of the metropolitan.