PTI wins two seats in HMC elections

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secured two out of four seats in the voting for union councils (UC) 28 and 35 of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) to elect chairmen, vice chairmen and ward councillors for which voting took place on Sunday.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and an independent candidate managed to win one seat each, according to official results.

The voting process in these polling stations was stalled due to clashes during the January 15 local government elections in Hyderabad. The clashes erupted between the workers of the PPP and PTI outside the polling stations in UC-28 and UC-25.

A PTI worker, Ali Hingoro, was manhandled in the former UC while aerial firing was heard during the vote count. The PPP's Asfand Mari and Muhammad Jibran were the successful pair in UC-28. In UC-35 PTI's Naeem Sameeuddin and Muhammad Salman Khan emerged victorious albeit with a slender margin of 20 votes over the PPP candidates. They bagged 1,284 votes while the PPP candidates Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Sanober Iqbal got 1,264 votes.

The PTI's candidate, Tahir Ayub, also won the seat of general member from ward No 3 of UC-35, getting 468 votes while PPP's Muhammad Saqib polled 322 votes.

An independent candidate, Ashraf Ahmed, won the ward No 1 of UC-28, by getting 380 votes.

The LG elections were conducted on 155 out of 160 seats of chairmen and vice chairmen in the HMC because of deaths of the candidates in five UCs.

The Election Commission of Pakistan announced results of 153 UCs as the polling process was stalled in UC-28 and UC-35 on that day. Among the 153 constituencies, 96 had gone to the PPP and 40 to PTI.

After the addition of one more seat by the two parties, the PPP now has 97 UCs and PTI 41. The former is set to elect its mayor but the PPP has still not declared its candidate for the position.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2023.