PPP wants to hold local government polls in Sindh, says Ghani

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) desires that the local government elections are held earliest in Sindh but the delimitation exercise required before the polls is being delayed due to the controversial census results.

Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said this on Saturday while addressing a press conference. He blamed the federal government and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), which he said claimed to have the mandate of Karachi, for the delay in the delimitation exercise.

He said the federal government with the support of the MQM-P got the controversial census results approved from Parliament and the Council of Common Interests.

Being optimistic about the PPP’s popularity in Sindh, he said the party would secure surprise victories in the upcoming local bodies elections in the cantonments and later in the local government elections in the province.

He said harm would be done to the Kashmir cause in case rigging was allowed in the Azad Kashmir polls as it was allowed in the last general elections in the country.

Ghani, who is also the president of the PPP Karachi chapter, said the party would field candidates in the cantonment polls in all the cantonment boards of the province.

He predicted that the PPP would be able to get elected its mayors in every district of the province, including Karachi, in the next local government polls.

To a question, the education and labour minister responded that the Sindh government would not hold the cantonment elections as it was the domain of the Election Commission of Pakistan like other elections in the country. He added that the PPP would merely contest the upcoming cantonment elections to be held in September.

The Sindh government was fully empowered in accordance with the provincial local government law to appoint any person as the administrator of the municipal agencies, Ghani said as he dismissed the criticism of some political parties against the likely appointment of Barrister Murtaza Wahab as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) administrator. The administrator in question could be a person having political background or could be a government servant, he said.

He added that at present, a government servant was serving as the KMC administrator while the deputy commissioners in every district of the city had been given the additional charge of the administrator of the respective district municipal corporations.

The provincial minister said Barrister Wahab, currently serving as the adviser to the Sindh chief minister on law and environment, was a responsible member of the provincial cabinet and the PPP did not care at all about objections raised by other political parties to his name for the slot of the Karachi administrator.

Former vice president of the Cantonment Board Clifton Najeeb Wali also announced his decision to join the PPP at the press conference.