KARACHI, Oct 5: The stage is set for holding the last phase of local body elections on Thursday when members of the electorate college comprising members of union councils would exercise their right to elect city district/ town/ taluka nazims and members of the respective councils against reserved seats of women, peasants/workers and minorities across the country.
In Karachi district, which has an electorate college of 2,314 members of 178 UCs in 18 towns, the polling is being held to elect candidates for 191 seats with the following break up.
The city nazim and 18 town nazims, 59 women, nine workers and nine councillors from minorities would be elected against reserved seats for city district council. Similarly, a total of 59 women would be elected for town councils in proportion to their respective town population while 18 workers and 18 members of minorities, one each on the town council against their reserved seat, would be elected.
Amidst allegations of pre-poll rigging by the opposition leaders, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement claims that its accusation was no more than preparing ground for face saving to cover up rejection of their candidates by the elected representatives of people in the third phase election campaign.
Although there are five candidates in the run, the die is cast between Haq Parast nominee Syed Mustafa Kamal and Tameer-i-Karachi Itthehad candidate Niamatullah Khan as the other three aspirants exist for a record purpose only. They are Dr Muhammad Hanif and Rizwan Akram Khanzada, both independent while the third candidate Zahid Ali had filed the nomination as PML-N candidate. Of the three, two of them had announced their retirement publicly in favour of the TKI candidate but none of them had complied with the legal formality to inform the Returning Officer about their decision.
The only paper of retirement received by the RO office was of Fauzia Wahab, who had filed nomination for the nazim slot from Awam Dost group of the PPP. However, as it was submitted after the ballot papers were sent for printing, her name would be on the ballot paper along with other five candidates.
This was stated by Syed Saeed Hasan, Ist Additional District and Sessions Judge South Karachi, who is Returning Officer for the indirect elections of the City District/Zila Council/ Town/Tehsil and Taluka.
On Thursday, besides election for the slot of city nazim and 18 town nazims, the polling will also be held to elect members for the city council against 59 reserved seats of women, nine workers and nine minorities.
The Election Commission figures indicate that 134 candidates are vying for 59 reserved seats of women while against nine seats of workers 67 candidates are in the field and against nine seats of minorities there are 34 aspirants.
According to the polling scheme, there will be three polling stations in each town where polling would be held from 8am to 5pm. Each voter in his town shall visit all the three polling stations set up within the same building. At the first polling station, he would cast three ballot papers against reserved seats of women, worker and minority in the city council while at the second polling station he would cast three ballot papers against reserved seats of women, worker and minority in the town and in the third polling station the voter would cast two ballot papers for city nazim and town nazim.
After the death of two members of the UCs, only 2,312 members of the electoral college would be able to cast their votes, the RO pointed out.
During the election campaign of the third phase, contest for the city nazim slot remained focal point which exposed the weak links among ruling coalition partners and slipping grip of the leadership within the parties as well.
This phenomenon is not limited to the ruling PML–Q alone but equally visible in the main stream opposition parties on the issue of awarding party tickets despite the fact that the local body elections are being held on non-party basis. For example, the PML-Q was divided over allotment of Khushhal Pakistan ticket for nazim seat in Keamari Town where Humayoon Khan and Akhtar Pervez, both from the PML-Q, were in the field. The former claims to be the nominee of PML-Q Sindh President Arbab Rahim while the later claims to be representative of PML-Q Central President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
In the opposition camp, the situation was not different as in Lyari Town which is the most strong hold of PPP, the nazim’s office was bone of contention and contested by two PPP leaders, both claiming to have support of the party. Sindh PPP high command was supporting Malik Muhammad Khan while Malik Muhammad Fayaz was backed by a chunk of Awam Dost councillors, who claimed to have support of party workers at the grassroots level.
However, the opposition parties despite divided into two alliances MMA and ARD had joined hands by fielding Niamatullah Khan, former city nazim, as consensus candidate from the platform of Tameer-i-Karachi Ittehad.
The ruling coalition partners MQM and PML-Q struggling for their respective candidates Nasreen Jalil and Tariq Hasan on naib nazim slot reached a settlement on Wednesday evening when PML-Q agreed to withdraw its candidate.
The Haq Parast group claims support of 1,800 councillors which are more than enough votes to win the election as only 1,156 votes are required to win the seat.
The rival group, represented by TKI, although did not indulge in the game of numbers its candidate Niamatullah Khan, who himself had led his campaign, repeatedly expressed his optimism of emerging victorious despite all coercion, manipulation and connivance with election commission officials for shifting polling stations and use of TPOs and SHOs to harass councillors to cast their vote in favour of MQM candidate.
However in view of the mounting tension due to allegations between the two main groups, the administration had taken special measures for maintaining law and order.
According to IGP Asad Jehangir, police petrol would be intensified and law enforcement agencies personnel would be deployed in sufficient numbers at sensitive spots. The authorities had also taken fool-proof arrangements to protect life and property of citizens, candidates and election staff. In addition, district and town control rooms have been linked with the central room to meet any emergency situation.
The Election Commission has already banned entry of ministers and advisers in the polling stations, taking mobile phone or weapons in the polling station to keep the election fair and free. It has also announced that if any candidate was found to purchase votes, he would be disqualified.
