KARACHI: The stage is set for holding local government by-elections on Sunday (today) for nine vacant seats in the metropolis for which 54 candidates, including the mayor and deputy mayor of Karachi, are in the run.

Among the 54 candidates, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab and his deputy Salman Murad of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) are contesting the by-elections in nine union committees (UCs) in five of the seven districts of Karachi — Malir, South, Central, East and Keamari — for UC chairmen, vice chairmen and four general members.

Mr Wahab had first filed nomination papers for the office of UC chairman on three seats in UC-13 Saddar Town, UC-3 Mauripur Town and UC-8 Ibrahim Hyderi but he returned unopposed from UC-8 after Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) contestant’s papers were rejected and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s contender withdrew her nomination papers.

The mayor and his deputy, who had not taken part in the Jan 15 LG polls, are now contesting the by-polls in an attempt to meet legal requirements for staying in their current offices.

Deputy Mayor Salman Murad is also vying for UC chairman against JI, TLP and PTI

Now, the mayor is contesting from his home UC (UC-13, Kehkashan Clifton) against six other contenders, including three independent candidates, However, JI’s Noor-ul-Islam, Sikandar Agar of Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and Syed Obaidullah Shah of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl are being touted as his main rivals.

The deputy mayor is also contesting by-polls for chairman’s seat from his native UC-7 (Gadap, Malir) against JI’s Ayub Khaskheli, TLP’s Salim Ahmed and Abdul Hafeez Jokhio of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

PPP’s Saleem Memon, PTI’s Mir Mohibullah and Maqbool Ahmed of TLP are also in the run for the seat of vice chairman in the same UC.

Six contenders are fighting it out with each other for the slot of chairman of UC-3 Mauripur. They are PPP’s Saifullah, Mohammad Zahid of PTI, JI’s Mohammad Hussain and Mohammad Zahid Iqbal of PML-N.

PPP’s Hamid Hussain, Imtiaz Khan of JI, Gulwaiz Khan of PML-N, PTI’s Mohammad Tahir and Atif Qadri of TLP are the main contenders for the office of vice chairman in UC-12 (Boat basin, Saddar Town).

For the slot of vice chairman UC-6 (Nanakwara, Saddar Town), PTI’s Mansoor Ahmed Shaikh and Mohammad Shahrukh of TLP, in addition to four independents, are in the fray.

Twenty candidates of different political parties are in the run for four seats of general member from ward-4 of UC-I Gadap Town, ward-3 of UC-2 Malir, ward-4 of UC-6 Jinnah Town in East district and ward-3 of UC-5 Nazimabad Town.

121 polling stations in city

The Election Commission of Pakistan, along with authorities concerned, set up 121 polling stations in Karachi.

Forty-two of the polling stations have been declared ‘highly sensitive’ and 79 ‘sensitive’.

As many as 482 polling booths have been established — 242 for male and 240 for female voters.

The voting process will commence at 8am and continue till 5pm.

The Sindh police said that they had devised a security plan for the LG by-elections under which thousands of policemen were being deployed across the province while quick response force would also remain on the standby to deal with any untoward incident during the polls.

For by-election in some other districts of the province, a total of 209 polling stations have been set up.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2023