MQM’s jailed mayor gets key to Karachi

SUKKUR/ HYDERABAD/ KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s incarcerated mayor of Karachi Wasim Akhtar took oath along with his deputy Arshad Vohra on Tuesday, calling for unity among political parties to work for the betterment of the metropolis.

Wasim was transported from Karachi Central Jail, where he has been on judicial remand in several cases, to Bagh-e-Quaid-i-Azam for the swearing-in ceremony under tight security protocol.

The Karachi mayor opened his speech with a slogan of ‘Jiye Muttahida, Jiye Bhutto and Jiye Imran Khan’ in response to slogans in favour of the Pakistan Peoples Party, as he tried to pacify the crowd.

“We have to set aside our differences,” he said apparently addressing the PPP leadership, which is believed to be against the local government system.

He said the local government elections were held on December 5, 2015 and it took nine months for the elected representatives to take oath. “It seems like a caesarean baby and not a normal delivery,” he quipped.

The tenure of Karachi’s last elected mayor Mustafa Kamal ended almost seven years ago in February 2010. “After eight years, Karachi has a mayor, a deputy mayor, a chairman and a vice-chairman. We will have to work together for the betterment of this city and this province,” said the MQM leader, whose party is embroiled in conflicts on different fronts.

Wasim thanked his party colleagues and those from the PPP, PML-N, PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami who participated in the LG elections and helped him get elected as mayor. “Together we all would resolve the issues of Karachi,” he said.

He said the country was being run with the revenue generated from Karachi but the city has been forgotten. “After taking oath, our link with politics has ended,” he said. “For four years now, we will work for the city.”

The MQM leader said he would submit a bail application after the ceremony and once he was out, he would meet the business community and diplomats to discuss their problems as well.

After the ceremony, the traditional key of the city was handed over to Akhtar by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator Laeeq Ahmed.

Talking to the media later, the mayor said he belonged to the MQM-Pakistan and would work under the supervision of Dr Farooq Sattar, who took over the leadership of the party last week, ending relations with the London Secretariat.

“Half of my family is in Pakistan Army,” Wasim said. “I am a born Pakistani and we cannot think of speaking against Pakistan. Pakistan belongs to me.”

“jiye Karachi, jiye Sindh, jiye Pakistan,” he shouted, ending his speech.

Meanwhile, Dr Sattar said Wasim received the key to the city and soon Karachi’s residents would give him the key to the jail.

Referring to the ongoing crackdown against the MQM, he said some people believed the party had weakened in the city. “Offices of the MQM may be demolished but its mandate can never be destroyed,” he claimed.

Earlier, the PTI could not obtain a restraining order from the Sindh High Court to bar Wasim from taking oath as the Karachi mayor as the hearing on its petition could not be held.

PTI leader Faisal Vawda had approached the high court, pleading to restrain Akhtar from taking the mayor’s oath due to his alleged involvement in cases of terrorism.

Newly-elected mayors and deputy mayors, chairmen and vice-chairmen of municipal corporations and committees also took oath of their respective offices in Hyderabad, Sukkur and other areas of upper and lower Sindh.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2016.