KARACHI, June 18: Two Muttahida Qaumi Movement-backed Haq Parast candidates were elected nazims of Jamshed and Gulberg Towns in the bypolls held here on Monday. The byelections were held after former Jamshed Town Nazim Arif Ajakya and Gulberg Town Nazim Maood Ahmed Hayat resigned from their respective offices in April.

In Jamshed Town, the Haq Parast Panel fielded Javed Ahmed Khan who won the bypoll by securing 114 votes while his opponent Muhammad Nasir Khan of PPP-backed Awam Dost Panel got only nine votes. Jamaat-i-Islami-backed Al-Khidmat Panel fielded Waleed Ahmed as its candidate but the panel boycotted the byelection. Forty-six voters, out of the total 169, abstained.

Mr Khan is the third town nazim since local body elections held in 2005 as earlier Colonel (retd) Tahir Mashhadi, the former Jamshed town nazim, resigned to contest the Senate election.

Muhammad Kamal of Haq Parast Panel returned unopposed as Gulberg Town Nazim after his covering candidate Azizur Rehman withdrew his nomination papers. There were 104 voters in the Gulberg Town.

In April this year, the MQM leadership took disciplinary action against two town nazims and an MPA and removed Mr Ajakya and Mr Hayat from town nazimship. Apparently the party had received reports of their alleged corruption and inefficiency in resolving peoples’ problems.The party also warned other town nazims and elected representatives to pay heed towards people’s complaints and stop favouritism, saying that in case of violation they would also be removed from their respective offices.