KARACHI: Opposition Leader in the City Council Saifuddin Advocate said on Friday that his party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, has decided to move a no-confidence motion against Mayor Murtaza Wahab, claiming that contacts with other political parties had yielded positive signals and strengthened the opposition’s position to challenge the city’s top elected office.

Addressing a press conference at his office, he said the decision had been formally taken and groundwork for the move was already underway.

“We have started collecting signatures from our members and are also in contact with other political parties,” he said, adding that the response from council members had been positive so far.

He alleged that improvement in the city’s problems was not possible under the current mayor’s leadership, claiming that every area of Karachi was suffering from severe mismanagement.

The opposition leader said that the key municipal institutions had effectively been placed under the control of the Sindh government, leaving the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, town administrations and union councils in a state of crisis.

Advocate Saifuddin says other parties have also given the green light to go ahead with no-confidence vote

“Even basic sanitation mechanisms are not under the effective control of union councils,” he said, arguing that the local government system had been rendered dysfunctional.

Referring to the recent incident at Gul Plaza, he said the tragedy had exposed serious administrative shortcomings. He criticised the performance of the Civil Defence department and held the commissioner and deputy commissioners responsible for the “negligence.”

He termed the commissioner’s report on the incident “third-rate,” alleging that it contained only a single page of brief recommendations. Saifuddin Advocate also raised concerns over the lack of accountability in previous incidents, including the case of a child who fell into an uncovered drain.

“More than two and a half months have passed, yet no meaningful investigation has been carried out,” he said, claiming that suspended officials had already been reinstated.

Highlighting financial constraints at the grassroots level, he said allocating Rs100,000 to a union council was “shameful,” questioning how such limited funds could address infrastructure needs such as covering open manholes.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2026