Mayoral victory: MQM retains sway over city

Party supporters desist from shouting pro-party slogans, displaying banners

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) imprisoned candidate for mayor, Wasim Akhtar, and his deputy, Arshad Vohra, easily won the mayoral elections at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) building on Wednesday.

MQM already had a strong position in the KMC Council, which comprises 320 seats, against the joint opposition which had fielded Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Karmullah Waqasi for mayor and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Amanullah Afridi as deputy mayor.

For the first time, a mayor of the city has contested the election from the confines of jail where Akhtar is in remand in several cases.

According to unofficial results, Akhtar bagged 208 votes, whereas Vohra was able to muster 205. On the other hand, PPP’s Waqasi managed to get 86 while PML-N’s Afridi got 89.

The KMC Council, which is the electoral college for mayor and deputy mayor, consists of the elected chairpersons of all union committees (UC) of the city and the councilors elected on reserved seats.

Missing in action

Akhtar, dressed in an aqua grey pants and a crisp white shirt with a tie, was transported from the city’s central jail to the KMC building at around 9am, where he stayed till 6pm. After disembarking from the armoured vehicle, Akhtar immediately went upstairs to mingle with other party candidates.

The usual fervour attributed to the MQM during elections was conspicuously missing with no party banners seen and slogans heard whereas slogans from Pakistan Peoples Party workers reverberated every now and then.

Explaining the missing enthusiasm, one of the MQM’s female elected chairperson, on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that they are chanting ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ this time instead of the usual ‘Jiye Altaf’. Another female chairperson of UC-27, Abida Sultana, said they still want to chant ‘Jiye Altaf’ but the situation is not favourable right now. “The slogan is in our hearts but not on our tongues,” she explained.

Former MQM MPA Nadeem Hashmi, the elected chairman of UC-22, said they have lowered their energy in order to subdue the controversies in which MQM is presently caught in.

“Our victory will be our chants,” said a party official present at the MQM camp set up at the premises when asked about missing posters and banners.

Speaking to the media after visiting the old KMC building, MQM’s Farooq Sattar said he believes that the sealed party headquarters and other offices would be opened soon as those are not their political offices but their public offices.

Meanwhile, MQM’s Khawaja Izhaarul Hassan, who is the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly, said the chief minister promised to empower the city’s mayor and now it is time to fulfill that promise.

Tension after Imran Ismail’s visit

Senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Ismail, was greeted with intense chants against his party when he reached the KMC building for making an alliance with the MQM in District West at the eleventh hour and for ditching the Karachi Ittehad formed against the MQM. The group included PPP, PML-N, PTI, Jamaat-e-Islami, Awami National Party and Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl. Members of the other five parties stormed the building and manhandled Ismail while he was talking to the media.

“PTI does not have any personal enmity against MQM,” stated Ismail later, adding that MQM’s Akhtar is his friend and that the MQM Pakistan’s disassociation with the London leadership is a good omen.

Later, the PTI’s flag was torn from the Karachi Ittehad’s banner outside the KMC building on which flags of all six parties were inscribed.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 25^th, 2016.