Hafiz Naeem unlikely to get more than 160 votes for mayor: Ghani

Says PTI’s LG representatives have hinted at staying away from mayoral polls

KARACHI:

Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani has said that Jamaat-e-Islami leader Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman is not going to secure more than 160 votes from members of the City Council in the upcoming election for Karachi's mayor.

The Sindh Labour Minister stated this on Thursday while talking to media persons after attending a programme here at a hotel jointly organised by the Higher Education Commission and Microsoft.

He said that although JI and its ally Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf collectively had strength of 193 members in the soon-to-be-formed City Council, out of them not more than 160 would vote for Naeem.

He said although the JI Karachi chief was keen on becoming the next mayor of Karachi, his wish would never be fulfilled, he said, adding that the upcoming mayoral election on June 15 would prove his notion.

Ghani told journalists that the majority of the newly-elected local government representatives of the PTI in Karachi had informed the leadership of their party even before May 9 that they would not vote in favour of the JI mayoral candidate.

To a question, Ghani said that other political parties had not accepted the victory of the PPP in the local government polls in the city. He said that Muttahida Quami Movement was no exception. He said the leaders of JI and PTI had been doing false propaganda in this regard.

Answering another question, Ghani said that activists and leaders of the PTI involved in heinous crimes could not be pardoned.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 2^nd, 2023.