PPP, JI confident of victory in mayoral contest

Both parties are optimistic about having the support of PTI members for their respective candidate

KARACHI:

With few days left, the race for Mayor of Karachi is heating up between the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), as both are confident that they have the support of newly-elected local body representatives from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to carve out a win.

Even though the PTI Chairman, Imran Khan, after a recent meeting with JI’s mayor candidate Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, directed his party’s elected representative to vote for Rehman in the upcoming mayoral election, the PPP claims that it is in talks with several of the PTI’s representatives, who are likely to disregard their chairman’s direction.

However, the PPP’s confidence in carving out a win has not dented the JI’s hopes, whose leader Saifuddin Advocate, whilst talking to the Express Tribune, said that any attempt at horse-trading by the PPP would be taken up to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). “After their chairman’s direction all of PTI’s representatives are bound to support us and we will make sure they cast their vote for our candidate,” he announced.

“We have 130 members in Karachi and along with PTI’s 62 members we have 192 votes in total, which is enough to win the mayoral election,” the JI leader informed. “All of PTI’s members are in contact with us and if the PPP tries to hinder them from voting, we will go to the courts,” he reiterated.

When asked under what law would the JI take the PPP to court if PTI’s representatives did not vote for Rehman, Saifuddin Advocate said that the Supreme Court’s ruling on Article 63-A of the Constitution is quite clear that votes contrary to party policy will not be counted and if such a situation arises come June 15th then we have a clear cut case of defection against the PTI members who cast their vote for PPP.

However, Najmi Alam, a leader of the PPP, does not agree with Saifuddin Advocate. “If a majority of the PTI representatives decide that they will vote for us then how are they against party policy?” retorted Alam. When asked to delve upon the number game, which would help PPP’s mayor candidate, Murtaza Wahab, Alam explained: “We have 155 members and also have the support of 18 members associated with the PML-N and JUI, which brings our total to 173. A majority of the 62 PTI members will vote for our candidate, which means our vote count will be well above 200.”

While Alam is confident about the PTI members’ support of the PPP, several newly-elected representatives associated with the PTI, who spoke to the Express Tribune under the condition of anonymity, feel that the support is being coerced. “There has been a severe crackdown against us by the police on account of the May 9th protests and presently we are being told that either we support the PPP or be prepared to face the law,” one newly-elected PTI member alleged.

It remains to be seen whether the PTI or JI will take up these allegations with the ECP but for now their strategy seems to be a reliance on the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Article 63-A. Umer Farooq, a legal expert, was of the view that this strategy might not be of any assistance to the two political parties. “The Article 63-A judgement pertains to members of the National Assembly or provincial assemblies, who do not follow the party head’s direction. There is no mention of the judgement applying to local bodies or mayoral elections,” said Farooq while talking to The Express Tribune.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2023.