High hopes: MQM vows to sweep LG elections

Party starts interviewing aspirants for election tickets

KARACHI: No matter how unfair and discriminatory the ongoing Karachi operation becomes, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) will sweep the local government elections, party leader, Waseem Akhtar, claimed on Thursday.

"The operation can get worse but the MQM will keep on getting stronger. Look what happened in the NA-246 by-polls. We secured a huge number of votes," reasoned Akhtar.

The party leader was addressing a press conference at the Lal Qila ground on Wednesday afternoon. The ground, located near the MQM headquarters, Nine Zero, has been turned into an interview site for aspiring candidates, with separate tents set up for interviewing aspirants from each of the six districts of Karachi.

Sharing details about the party's preparations for the local bodies elections, he said that the MQM will field its candidates in each union committee and council in Karachi.

"Interviews have started and everyone, regardless of their ethnicity and language, can contest from our platform," he explained, adding that journalists may apply too if they are interested in working for public welfare.

The MQM leader said that in the six districts of Karachi, which comprise 209 union committees and 38 union councils, 6,897 candidates have been interviewed for the over 2,000 seats up for grabs.

In the six cantonment boards, the MQM had participated in 28 wards out of 32, and had been successful in 15.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2015.