KARACHI: Newly-elected Deputy Mayor Syed Arshad Hasan, who belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), took his oath of office on Thursday at a ceremony held in Gulshan-i-Jinnah, better known as Polo Ground. City Mayor Wasim Akhtar administered the oath.

Office of the deputy mayor had become vacant after disqualification of Arshad Vohra for switching parties after being elected to his position.

Mr Vohra had joined the Mustafa Kamal-led Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) on Oct 29, 2017, stating that he was not able to deliver to the people of Karachi.

Then MQM-P convener Farooq Sattar had gone to the Election Commission of Pakistan (EP), seeking disqualification of Mr Vohra under the Local Government Act 2013.

The ECP had last month pronounced Mr Vohra’s disqualification for switching parties after being elected to his position.

Addressing the participants of the ceremony, Mayor Akhtar said the election of the deputy mayor was another big success for the party which was the result of continuous struggle. “We all as elected representatives or workers have the same aim to solve the problems of the city and to play our role in this struggle to bring improvement in this city,” he added.

The deputy mayor thanked all for supporting him and termed his election to the office as an honour. “It’s a big responsibility on my shoulders to contribute [to the] betterment in the city and provide relief to the people by solving their problems,” he vowed.

Mr Hasan said that local bodies were considered nursery of democracy and therefore they should be made stronger, but the citizens of the city felt that the present elected municipal leadership still performed its duty to minimise the problems despite not being allowed to work for the progress of the city.

MQM-P convener and Federal IT and Communications Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, party parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly Kanwar Naveed Jamil, MNA Amin-ul-Haq and other members of the provincial assembly and MQM-P Rabita Committee members, DMC East chairman Moeed Anwer and DMC West chairman Izhar Ahmed Khan, parliamentary leaders in the City Council, chairmen of different City Council committees and members, Deputy Commissioner South Salahuddin and KMC officers also attended the ceremony.

Later, the deputy mayor visited the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam and offered fateha.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2019