PPP's Ghani in contact with PTI for Karachi mayoral slot

Murtaza Wahab alleges JI's Rehman not 'son of Karachi', born outside city

KARACHI:

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said on Monday that he met Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) members and asked for their support regarding the mayoral polls for Karachi, Express News reported.

During a press conference in the metropolis, Ghani stated that he was “trying” and faced no restrictions on meeting PTI members. The provincial minister added that they will request the PTI union council (UC) chairperson to vote in their favour.

“It will be a favour to us if they vote and if they don’t that is their decision,” adding that the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) team will be kept on standby on election day.

Ghani continued that the opposing Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) was now headed to the Supreme Court and will get relief if they went to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial.

It is pertinent to note that on June 7 JI challenged the amendment of the Local Government Act to elect unelected persons as mayors in the province in the Sindh High Court (SHC).

Moreover, the PPP’s nominated candidate for mayor Murtaza Wahab criticised the JI and said that party leader Hafiz Naeemur Rehman was not a “son of Karachi”. He maintained that he himself, Ghani and Salman Abdullah Murad were all born in the city.

Wahab, however, stated that papers should be checked to ensure where Rehman was born, adding that he knew it was “not Karachi”.

Read PPP’s mayor to serve Karachi in the best possible way: Ghani

He continued that all allegations made by the JI at the Shahrah-e-Quaideen will be negated by the PPP’s character and services. Wahab said that his party will serve for the next four years and the following four years after that.

Last week, Ghani said Rehman would not secure more than 160 votes from members of the City Council in the upcoming election for Karachi's mayor.

He said that although JI and its ally PTI collectively had a 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 the city, 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.