KARACHI: In an upcoming by-election of local government on over 100 vacant seats across the province, Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab Siddiqi and his deputy Salman Murad are set to contest polls from different union committees in the city in an attempt to meet the legal requirements to stay on their current positions.

According to a recent amendment to the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA), mayor and deputy mayor are required to contest and win UC chairman elections within six months after being elected.

Officials and party sources said that the by-elections on over 100 seats of local bodies were likely to be held next month across the province.

“In Karachi elections will be held on general seats of ward councillors and 19 reserved seats,” said a source. “However, the recent development suggests that several UC chairmen in the city have also resigned vacating their UC seats in Malir, South, Gadap and Keamari districts. The mayor and the deputy are likely to contest from Gadap and Malir seats. The party will soon finalise and announce the plan of their election.”

SHC allows the duo to become intervener in petitions challenging SLGA amendment

In May 2023, a month before the city mayoral election, the Sindh Assembly unanimously approved an amendment to the SLGA that paved the way for any person, who has not been directly elected as chairman or vice chairman of a union committee/council (UC) in the province, to become mayor/deputy mayor and chairman/vice chairman of a district municipal corporation or district council for at least six months if elected with the majority of votes in a city/district council.

The SLGA states any person could run for the polls of mayor, deputy mayor, chairman and vice chairman but has to be elected as a member of the respective council within six months to continue holding the office.

The PPP sources said that the party leadership was likely to meet next week to discuss the plan for the by-polls.

“The Karachi division meeting would also seek suggestions from party workers and the elected members to design a strategy for the local bodies’ by-polls. The other divisions of Sindh are also likely to meet with the same agenda next week,” said a senior party leader.

Petitions against election of unelected person as mayor

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday allowed the applications of mayor, deputy mayor and others seeking to become parties in a set of petitions filed by the leaders of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and others against an amendment to the SLGA that paved way for the unelected persons to become mayor/deputy mayor.

Initially, Karachi JI chief and party mayoral candidate Hafiz Naeemur Rehman had petitioned the SHC in June after the PPP fielded unelected Murtaza Wahab for the same office after the amendment in question and the petitioner asked the court to declare the amendment ultra vires to the Constitution.

Later, another leader of the JI and party’s candidate for the slot of deputy mayor, Saifuddin, and two other persons also filed identical petitions in the SHC while the then PPP’s nominees for the positions of mayor and deputy mayor Murtaza Wahab and Salman Murad respectively and others also approached the court to become interveners in the proceedings.

When a two-judge bench headed by Justice Yousuf Ali Sayeed took up the matter for hearing on Thursday, the counsel for the petitioners did not object to the applications of the mayor and others to become interveners.

Subsequently, the bench allowed such applications and directed all the parties concerned to come prepared on Sept 28 for arguments.

Mr Wahab had become mayor of the city during the mayoral elections held on June 15.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2023