• Khuhro announces chairmen, vice chairmen in 13 of Karachi’s 25 towns
• Arsalan Shaikh nominated as Sukkur mayor

KARACHI: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Monday announced its candidates for the June 15 elections of mayors, deputy mayors and district council chairmen.

Other than Karachi where a close contest is expected between the PPP and Jamaat-i-Islami, the ruling party is confident for a smooth sailing to key slots of municipal administrations in other urban and rural parts of the province as it enjoys majority in almost every district of the province.

Speaking at a press conference at Bilawal House, president of the PPP’s Sindh chapter Senator Nisar Khuhro announced that Barrister Murtaza Wahab and Salman Murad would be the party’s candidates for the key slot of the mayor and deputy mayor of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

Karachi division is municipally divided into 25 towns and the PPP is confident of its victory on 13 towns as it announces named of its candidates for the slots of chairman and vice chairman of each town.

The 13 towns are Lyari Town, Korangi Town, Safoora Town, Chanesar Town, Sohrab Goth Town, Mauripur Town, Moriro Mirbahar Town, Baldia Town, Manghopir Town, Orangi Town, Malir Town, Ibrahim Hyderi Town and Gadap Town.

Other mayoral candidates

Senator Khuhro announced Kashif Shoro and Sagheer Qureshi as PPP’s candidates for mayor and deputy mayor of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

In Sukkur, the party picked Arsalan Sheikh as its mayoral candidate along with Dr Arshad Mughal as the candidate of deputy mayor of the Sukkur Municipal Corpo­ration.

According to Mr Khuhro, Abdul Rauf Ghori and Junaid Buland would be party candidates for mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, for Mirpurkhas.

Similarly, in Benazirabad, the PPP nominated Qazi Rasheed and Mubashir Arain as its mayoral candidates.

For Larkana Municipal Corporation, Anwar Lohar and Muhammad Ameen Sheikh have been nominated as candidates for the mayor and deputy mayor.

Candidates for district councils

For district council Sukkur, Syed Kumail Shah and Akhtar Ali Mehar were nominated as chairman and vice chairman, respectively.

For Khairpur district council, Shiraz Shaukat Rajpar and Fahad Shah Jillani were nominated as chairman and vice chairman.

Bangul Khan Mehar and Babar Khan Lund would be chairman and vice chairman for Ghotki district council.

For Shaheed Benazirabad, Ali Akbar Jamali and Abdul Rasool Brohi were nominated as chairman and vice chairman.

For Naushahro Feroze district council, Sohail Abbassi and Sher Bharat were nominated as chairman and vice chairman.

In Sanghar, the party nominated Ali Hasan Hangoro as chairman and Jam Zaheer as vice chairman.

In Mipurkhas, the party nominated Mir Anwar Talpur and Mir Ahmed Khan as chairman and vice chairman respectively.

In Umerkot, the PPP nominated Haji Baqa Bhali and Pir Muhammad as its candidates for the district council’s chairman and vice chairman.

In Tharparkar, Ghulam Muhammad Samejo and Kamla Bheel are nominated as candidates of chairman and vice chairman.

For Tando Muhammad Khan, Qasim Shah and Haji Gulama Mustafa Jat were nominated as candidates for chairman and vice chairman of the district council.

In Sujawal, the party nominated Danish Malkani and Rameezul Haq as candidates for the slots of chairman and vice chairman of the district council.

The PPP nominated Ali Asghar Halipoto and Fida Mandhero as candidates for chairman and vice chairman of the Badin district council.

In Dadu district council, it picked Syed Muhammad Shah and Sher Muhammad Chandio as its candidates for chairman and vice chairman.

In Matiari, the party candidate would be Makhdoom Ahmed Zaman for district council chairman with Syed Ali Murtaza as vice chairman.

In Jamshoro, for district council chairman the PPP nominated Sohail Shoro and Amanullah Shahani its candidates for chairman and vice chairman.

For Tando Allahyar district council, the PPP nominated Mir Pio Talpur and Darya Khan Marri as its candidates for chairman and vice chairman.

In Larkana district council, the party nominated Ejaz Leghari and Asadullah Bhutto as candidates for chairman and vice chairman.

For Qambar Shehdadkot, Qamaruddin Gopang and Ghulam Muhammad Isran were nominated as candidate for chairman and vice chairman.

In Shikarpur, Sardar Zulfiqar Ali Kamario and Kamran Mehar will contest election as chairman and vice chairman.

In Jacobabad district council, Tahir Khoso and Rizwan Odho were nominated as candidates for chairman and vice chairman.

In Kashmore, the PPP nominated Gul Muhammad Jakhrani and Altaf Khoso as candidates for chairman and vice chairman of the district council.

Bilawal congratulates candidates

Foreign Minister and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari congratulated his party candidates for the top positions of upcoming local government system, but chose to mention names of only two cities where the party sounds confident to win the key slots of the municipal bodies.

“Congratulations to all PPP nominees for chairman, dep chairman, mayor, deputy mayor and towns,” he tweeted. “The people have expressed faith in the PPP. Now let’s go win the next round and get going with what we do best — serving the people. A special thank you to Hyderabad and Karachi for trusting us for the first time. I have full faith that Mr [Kashif] Shoro Mr [Murtaza] Wahab will be the first but not the last PPP mayors of our two great cities.”

Barrister Wahab responded immediately and vowed to “deliver the best” for his hometown.

“I have no words to express my gratitude to chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, former president Asif Ali Zardari, Adi Faryal Talpur and the entire leadership of PPP for this honour of nominating me for the position of mayor of Karachi,” he said.

“I am a Karachiite — the city is in my veins and nothing would be of greater honour for me but to work for the betterment of our great city. I pledge to deliver to the best of my abilities and take the entire city forward, working with all stakeholders, political and administrative.”

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2023