HYDERABAD: After hectic del­i­berations, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has finalised the names of Syed Tayyab Hussain and Syed Suhail Mehmood aka Sohail Mashhadi as its candidates for the slots of mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, of Hyderabad.

The candidates, accompanied by the party’s district organiser, Siraj Rajput, submitted their nomination papers and party tickets with the returning officer concerned on Monday. The remaining 11 pairs withdrew their candidature.

Tayyab and Mashhadi would face Pakistan Peoples Party’s Allah Bux Pasha and Hassan Ali Jatoi, respectively, in the contest scheduled for Aug 24.

Party sources said that the pairs who failed to get their candidature finalised did try to use the good offices of certain London-based leaders like Nadeem Nusrat and Mustafa Azizabadi, as well lobbyists like MNA Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and MPA Kanwar Naveed Jamil.

Tayyab is close to both Nadeem Nusrat and Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, probably because the lawmakers had stayed in the United States, where he (Tayyab) also lived for a considerably long period before returning home. “They have family ties,” said a party source.

Tayyab contested his first election in 2008 from the Latifabad constituency to become an MNA and won comfortably to hold the seat till 2013.

Mashhadi served as a minister in the Sindh government in 1990 after being elected from one of four provincial assembly seats of undivided Hyderabad district. He remained an active MQM leader along with Rafiq Ajmeri and Abdul Rasheed aka Rasheed Bhayya.

He rejoined the party in the recent past and became a member of the party’s committee for its Hyderabad zone. He was recently picked up by the Rangers briefly for questioning.

Among the other potential candidates were Zafar Rajput, the former Hyderabad district naib nazim, Salahuddin, an MNA from the city during 2008-2013, and Aslam Pervez, a former MPA.

Party sources see the Tayyab-Mashhadi pair with great interest for some reasons, one of them being that, according to political circles, they lack a sound or essential working relationship within the party.

“[MQM supremo] Altaf Bhai during a consultation over phone had argued that when he has already finalised the Rajput-Mashhadi pair, then why people [within the party] are whispering about it,” said a party sources, adding that the coordination committee leaders at Karachi and London were also part of this consultation.

The source insisted that initially the Rajput-Mashhadi pair had been under serious consideration of Altaf Hussain amidst reports that there were some issues about Tayyab but the internal lobbyists eventually managed to prevail upon the party leadership and the name of Rajput was dropped. “Kanwar Naveed Jamil as the district nazim and Zafar Rajput as his deputy remained on different wavelengths. MNA Jamil may have thrown his weight behind Tayyab,” said another source.

Tayyab and Mashhadi have been elected chairmen of different union committees falling within Latifabad. The party has technically deprived the city taluka of its share in one of the two slots of the HMC although this taluka has a higher number of UCs, ie 52, as compared to 44 of Latifabad in the HMC’s total 96 UCs.

Earlier, Dr Salim Danish, an HMC councillor in 1987, was sent to Hyderabad from London to file his nomination papers for a reserved (labour) seat. But the MQM leadership had a second thought and he was told not to contest.

During the nomination process, RO Qamaruddin Shaikh raised objection on the papers of PPP candidates, Allah Bux Pasha, commonly known as Pasha Qazi, and Hassan Ali Jatoi. The RO contended that the papers did not include the letter from the party’s ticket issuing authority, Senator Taj Haider.

Pasha Qazi contacted Mr Hyder and informed him about the objection. Mr Haider spoke to the RO, who then consulted the provincial election commissioner. The RO did not reject the PPP candidates’ papers which would otherwise mean unopposed election of Tayyab and Mashhadi. The PPP candidate were asked to submit the required authority letter.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2016