KARACHI: A large number of candidates of several political parties on Friday filed their nomination papers for the posts of mayor, deputy mayor and chairman and vice chairman of hundreds of municipal bodies for the elections scheduled for Aug 24.

The candidature of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s jailed leader Waseem Akhtar was filed by his deputy, Arshad Vohra, at the relevant returning officer’s office as the party’s nominee for the city mayor slot.

The Pakistan Peoples Party announced Karamullah Waqasi, a party worker from a Gizri locality, as its candidate for the top slot in Karachi who will file his nomination papers on Saturday.

Candidature of MQM’s jailed leader Waseem Akhtar submitted by the party nominee for deputy mayor slot

PML-N candidate for the top post is Mohammed Rafiq Khan.

Mr Vohra, who filed his candidature for the deputy mayor after filing the candidature of Mr Akhtar, said despite being in jail, the MQM leadership and its legal team would take all measures to get him elected as city mayor.

Attorney for the MQM nominee, Khawaja Naveed, told Dawn that Mr Vohra and two members of the Sindh Assembly belonging to the MQM went to the returning officer and filed his candidature. “The court said it was not its jurisdiction to issue production orders of Waseem Akhtar for filing his nomination papers. However, the court did not object to the production orders issued by the election commission,” he said. The lawyer said he would ask court for Mr Akhtar’s production on Aug 8 to appear for the scrutiny process of his candidature.

“He will be the first person to win the mayor’s election from behind the bars,” said Mr Naveed.

Mr Vohra said he was confident that Mr Akhtar would be appearing before the returning officer if the latter called him on the day of scrutiny.

“Waseem Akhtar is the key to future development of Karachi,” said Mr Vohra while speaking to the media.

MQM’s Arif Khan, Nadeem Hashmi, Aslam Afridi and Arshad Ahsan also filed their nomination papers as covering candidates for the mayor’s post.

Meanwhile, the PPP announced the name of its candidates for the mayoral election in Karachi and Hyderabad.

Sindh PPP coordination committee chief Nisar Khuhro said Karamullah Waqasi and Pasha Qazi would be party candidates for the mayoral elections in Karachi and Hyderabad, respectively. However, the PPP did not nominate anyone for the deputy mayor’s slot. The party leadership is in consultation with other political parties to jointly contest against the MQM candidates.

The party announced the names of Zulfikar Qaimkhani, and Malik Fayyaz for the post of chairmen for deputy municipal corporations of Karachi East and South districts.The party also announced heads and deputies of the Thatta municipal committee, Hyderabad district council, Umerkot, Shikarpur and Qambar Shahdadkot municipal committees.

Officials said several candidates from the Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and other political parties and independent groups also filed their nomination papers on municipal bodies across Sindh.PML-N’s Parveeen Basheer collected a form for the deputy mayor’s slot, the officials said.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, the last date for filing appeals against decisions of nomination papers is Aug 12.

The appellate authorities will decide appeals by the next day, while the withdrawal of nomination papers will be allowed till Aug 15. A revised list of candidates along with election symbols will be issued by Aug 16. After the polling on Aug 24, the returning officer will consolidate and declare the results by Aug 29. The elected mayors, deputy mayors and chairman and vice chairman will then take oath on Aug 30.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2016