KARACHI: For the first time since the results of recent local government elections have emerged, the Pakistan Peoples Party has came up with calculations of the possible formation of the upcoming City Council to prove the prospects of its success in the crucial mayoral election and announced that its nominee would be the next mayor of Karachi.

The claim came on Friday from the top leadership of the party’s Karachi chapter which was confident that it’s only a matter of time when a ‘Jiyala mayor’ would be assuming the key office of the city local bodies system heralding the return of the PPP in electoral mandate of the metropolis.

“With 155 members in the soon-to-be-formed City Council, we are sure to get our nominee elected as the next mayor of Karachi,” said Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister and PPP Karachi president Saeed Ghani while addressing a press conference here at the Sindh Assembly.

“Any party needs to have minimum of 184 members in the council for getting its nominee elected as the city mayor. This requirement would come down to 183 if Firdous Shamim Naqvi of the PTI decides to vacate his seat in the council. Amid all this, one should not forget that it’s already decided that 14 council members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and four members of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazal) would support our candidate for the mayoral seat.”

Bilawal to address I.I. Chundrigar Road rally today

He was also hopeful that Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan, which has one seat in the City Council, would support the PPP in the mayoral election.

Apart from the calculation of the seats and partnership with the parties having mandate, he said, the ruling PPP during the past few years deserved to become the largest single party in the local government polls following ‘record development projects’ and keeping ‘focus of its efforts on Karachi and its people’.

“It was the trust of the people which converted into votes and we won the majority,” said Mr Ghani.

“Another thing which proved the politics of Karachi and its people is that they have rejected the politics of divide. They don’t want ethnicity to grow among them which has already caused so much damage to this city and the country. Our policy of uniting people and bringing them closer made us successful.”

Rally planned today to celebrate victory

Following the ‘historic success’, the minister said that party was staging a rally on I.I. Chundrigar Road on Saturday to celebrate their overwhelming victory in the recently held local government polls, which would be addressed by PPP chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

He said the stage of the rally would be set near the National Bank’s head office while rallies comprising PPP supporters and activists would enter the venue from Shaheen Complex appealing Karachiites to participate in big numbers.

He also urged the parties which participated in the recent by-polls and won mandate to look forward and join hands for development of the city.

He also asked them to respect the mandate of others instead of levelling ‘false’ allegations.

“The PPP has always enjoyed support in Karachi as a political force,” he said. “Even we had serious reservations over several issues before and after the polls but we ignored them all for the sake of larger interest of the city. We expect the same maturity from other parties.”

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2023