KARACHI: The city chapters of the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf have entered into a seat-adjustment agreement for the Dec 5 local government elections in Karachi.

The announcement was made by Karachi JI chief Engineer Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rahman and Karachi PTI president Syed Ali Zaidi at a joint press conference on Friday.

The JI leader told reporters that the two parties would contest the election on their separate election symbols — scale for JI and bat for PTI — but they ensured that their candidates did not face each other in any union committee (UC) of the city.

In response to a question, he said that the seat-adjustment agreement had been reached in around 80-85 per cent the city’s UCs, while remaining 15-20pc UCs “are open for negotiations with other likeminded parties”.

The two leaders explained that in some of the UCs the JI and the PTI had already reached an understanding with the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan-Noorani, respectively.

They said that they were contesting the election from a joint platform in order to restore peace and tranquillity to Karachi.

Hafiz Rehman said that the JI had agreed to contest jointly with the PTI as it had the background of serving this city with its three mayors, while the PTI had popular support.

People of the city wanted the JI and PTI to work together for solving decades-old problems of water shortage, devastated infrastructure, corruption, lawlessness, terrorism and extortion and restore its lost stature and solve their social and economic problems, said the JI leader.

The PTI and JI leaders also demanded that the polling in Karachi be conducted under the supervision of the army and Rangers.

They also called for deployment of army and Rangers troops in each polling station to ensure free, fair and transparent elections and to avoid the repeat of the Khairpur-like tragedies.

Mr Zaidi said on the occasion that the PTI was committed to bringing an effective local government system by introducing reforms in the present system in which all powers rested with the provincial LG minister.

He said the present LG system had failed in Sindh and the PTI chalked out a plan to not only reform the system but also to empower the Karachi mayor so that all institutions concerning the city could be brought back under the control of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

JI leader Rehman said that they had a vision for Karachi and for this purpose they had also prepared a manifesto which covered all civic issues like water, education, health, transport, cleanliness and Kutchi Abadis.

He also said that the JI wanted to get back what he called the usurped powers of the local governments so that the third tier of the government could play its due role effectively.

He said that the city transport system could not get mass transit until the Karachi mayor was empowered to get funding from international financial institutions and arrange its payments from the KMC’s own resources.

Syed Muzaffar Hashmi and Abdul Wahab of the JI and Firdaus Shamim and Imran Ismail of the PTI were also present during the press conference.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2015

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