Anti-MQM forces unite to take away two districts

As over 1,500 councillors-elect take oath of office, rival parties agree to ensure that Muttahida does not get top slots in West, South districts 

Karachi

As more than 1,500 councillors-elect of the local governments in six districts of Karachi took oath on Thursday, rival parties in the city's West and South districts reportedly reached an agreement to prevent the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) from clinching the top seats in these particular areas.

The development came on a day when local body representatives of 208 union committees of Malir, Korangi, East, West, South and Central districts and 38 union councils of the Karachi District Council took an oath of office. Those sworn in to serve on the city's local government included 988 ward councillors, 247 chairmen and 38 district councillors.

The need for a political alliance in two districts arose because the MQM, which won 136 of the total 208 seats, is in a position to form its government in the Karachi Municipal Corporation without any partnerships. 

Likewise, it does not need to join hands with any other party to form its governments in the district municipal corporations (DMCs) of the Central, East and Korangi districts as it has a comfortable majority in each of them.

However, a tough fight is expected in West and South, where the PML-N has fetched just enough votes to help another party form its governments in the two districts.

In DMC Malir, the MQM has won only one of the 13 seats there and is out of the contest.

For the past couple of days, the MQM has been protesting outside the office of the Sindh Election Commission to demand hastening of the process of forming local bodies.

The indirect election on reserved seats is scheduled to be held on Friday (today) after which the mayor and deputy mayor will be sworn in.

In District Central 306 representatives took oath at the Karachi Medical and Dental College administered by District and Sessions Judge Zeeshan Akhtar in the presence of District Election Commissioner Syed Nadeen Haider. Nominated deputy mayor Arshad Vohra also took oath.

In District East, the ceremony was held at the Federal Urdu University of Science, Arts and Technology where mayoral candidate Waseem Akhter was also sworn in by Additional District and Sessions Judge Shaban Waheed.

Members of the 13 union committees of Malir District was held at the Old DMC building while in Korangi elected representatives took oath at the Maya Banquet Marriage Hall in Dar-us-Salam Society.

A similarly ceremony for District West was held at the SITE Zonal office. There are 46 union committees in the DMC West, comprising the defunct Keamari, Baldia, SITE and Orangi towns.

The MQM has bagged 22 seats there while the PML-N and the PTI have won nine and five seats respectively.

The strength of the PPP, which won four seats, has increased to five after an independent candidate announced joining the party.

The Awami National Party and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl each have fetched two seats and the Jamaat-e-Islami one.

A larger alliance has formed against the MQM in the DMC West in recent weeks, but its members have yet to agree on the distribution of seats including the chairman, the vice-chairman and the reserved seats for labourers, women, youth and non-Muslims.

Dawa Khan Sabir, the PTI Karachi spokesperson, who is elected vice-chairperson in the DMC West’s Metroville UC, said all political parties in the alliance had agreed to stop the MQM from grabbing the top slots in the district and in upcoming meetings they would decide as to how the top seats would be divided among them.

“It was also decided in a meeting that no one would form alliance with the MQM,” Sabir told The News.

Party leaders said they had decided to give the slot of chairperson to the PML-N, but there a differences over the seat of the vice-chairperson between the PTI and the PPP.

In District South the oath-taking ceremony of 186 elected members took place at the Sindh Boy Scouts Association Auditorium at Deen Mohammed Wafai Road.

There are 31 union committees in the South district, comprising Lyari and the Old City area. The MQM and the PPP both claimed that they had won 12 of the union committees in the DMC South and needed only four more votes for a simple majority.

In this scenario, the PML-N, which has bagged four seats, has emerged as a kingmaker in the DMC politics.

Last week, the MQM had signed a written agreement with the PML-N under which the latter had agreed to give the slot of the vice-chairperson to the former after supporting each other in the DMC polls.

However, PML-N insiders told The News that forging an alliance with the MQM had caused an internal rift within the party and several elected members of the party had refused to follow the agreement.