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Friday March 29, 2024

Mustafa Kamal finds a silver lining in PSP’s election wipeout

By Our Correspondent
August 29, 2018

Former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal has said that his Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) would take part in all the by-elections, including the one for the National Assembly seat vacated by Imran Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and the country’s prime minister, in the metropolis.

The race for NA-243 (East-II) and the provincial assembly constituency PS-87 (Malir-I) would be conducted on October 12, according to the schedule released by the Election Commission of Pakistan. Nomination papers for these seats can be filed by August 30 (tomorrow).

Addressing a news conference on Tuesday, Kamal said that those who think that the PSP’s chapter closed in last month’s general elections would be disappointed because the party’s failure has made it “stronger than ever”.

Contrary to the PSP’s claims that it would sweep to victory in the July 25 polls, the party had suffered a wipeout, as it was unable to secure even a single seat. The PTI, however, not only had a surprising win but also came out as the largest political party of the city.

The former mayor said he does not wish to talk about who won the elections and how. His party has already filed a petition in the Sindh High Court seeking nullity of the election results of all 21 NA and 44 PS seats in Karachi so re-polling could be conducted for them.

Congratulating Khan on becoming the 22nd premier, Kamal put forward three demands: annul the results of Karachi and Hyderabad’s population census and order a recount, delegate municipal powers to the local bodies in all four provinces, and release national and provincial finance commission awards.

“PM Imran should redress the injustice done to the people of Karachi, as they were counted in the census as being fewer than the actual number. The elections were held on the basis of these controversial results, which is tantamount to depriving them of their rights.”

The ex-mayor said that the alleged manipulation caused at least 15 NA and 30 PS seats of the city to cease to exist. He asked the premier to comment on the matter and take measures to resolve this.

On the matter of delegating powers to the local bodies, he said Khan has always maintained that creating new provinces would not solve the country’s problems, but transferring powers to the local bodies would. Kamal said the PTI could do so immediately in the three provinces it rules over by just issuing a notification.

He also asked Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui to take his cue from Balochistan National Party-Mengal chief Akhtar Mengal and raise in the National Assembly the issue of persons gone missing in Karachi and Sindh’s other urban centres.

“Like the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, Karachi’s people should also be provided the opportunity to join mainstream politics,” said Kamal. He asked the MQM-backed law minister Farogh Nasim to find a legal way for this so the “missing and incarcerated Mohajir youth could be pardoned”.