KARACHI: The mayor and deputy mayor of Karachi are among several candidates who have filed their nomination papers to contest the Nov 5 by-elections in the metropolis on nine vacant seats, including of four union committee (UC) chairmen.

The by-elections are being held in eight UCs in five of the seven districts in the metropolis — Malir, South, Central, East, and Keamari — on four vacant seats of UC chairmen, two vice chairmen, and three general councillors.

Saturday was the last day of submission of nomination papers and Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab and Deputy Mayor Salman Murad also filed their candidatures.

According to the Sindh Local Government Act (SLGA), any person can contest the indirect election of mayor, deputy mayor, town chairmen, and vice chairmen but he/she has to contest a by-election within a period of six months in order to get elected as a UC chairman or vice chairman to continue to hold his/her post.

Both the mayor and deputy mayor did not contest the Jan 15 local government elections. Last month, four elected UC chairmen belonging to the Pakistan Peoples Party submitted their resignations so that the mayor and deputy mayor could contest the by-election to meet the legal requirement as per the SLGA to stay in their current positions.

JI, PPP hopefuls submit candidatures to contest Nov 5 by-polls on nine seats in five Karachi districts

Mr Wahab has filed nomination papers for UC chairman on three seats — UC-13 in Saddar Town, UC-3 in Mauripur Town, and UC-8 in Ibrahim Hyderi Town.

Mr Salman Murad filed his papers on one seat, UC-7 in Gadap Town.

The candidates of Jamaat-i-Islami and several other political parties have also filed their nomination papers to contest the by-elections on the nine vacant seats in the city.

Regional Election Commissioner Nazar Abbas told Dawn that the by-elections for the office of UC chairmen were being held on UC-7 in Gadap Town, UC-8 in Ibrahim Hyderi Town, UC-13 in Saddar Town and UC-3 in Mauripur Town.

Similarly, the candidates for vice-chairmen have also filed nomination papers for two vacant seats on UC-7 in Gadap Town and UC-12 in Saddar Town while by-polls are also being held on three general member seats in Ward 4 of UC-1 in Gadap, Ward 3 of UC-2 in Malir Town and Ward 3 of UC-5 in Nazimabad Town, he added.

On Sept 25, the Election Commission of Pakistan announced the schedule for by-elections of local government on various vacant seats in 21 districts of Sindh.

According to the schedule, nomination papers were submitted by candidates from Oct 5 to Oct 7 and names of nominated candidates will be published on Oct 9; the scrutiny of nomination papers will be conducted by returning officers (ROs) on Oct 10 and Oct 11 and the list of validly nominated candidates to be made public on Oct 12.

The applicants/appellants have three days to file a challenge against the orders of ROs and the last date to file such appeals against the decisions of the ROs about acceptance/rejection of nomination papers is Oct 16 and such appeals will be decided by the appellant authorities till Oct 19 while revised list of candidates will be published on Oct 20, it added.

The candidates will have the option to withdraw their papers until Oct 21 and election symbols will be allotted to the contesting candidates on the following day while the voting will commence at 8am and continue until 5pm on Nov 5.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2023