KARACHI, Oct 17: The new city government was inducted after city district and 18 town nazims and councillors and those elected on reserved seats were administered oath of their offices on Monday.

The main oath-taking ceremony was held at Bagh-i-Jinnah in which Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Syed Mustafa Kamal took oath as the city nazim.

District returning officer Agha Rafiq Ahmed administered oath to 34-year-old Mustafa Kamal who was elected city nazim in the last phase of local government elections on Oct 6.

Mr Mustafa had polled 1,493 votes while his arch rival, former city nazim, Niamatullah Khan, a candidate of the combined opposition (Tameer-i-Karachi Ittehad) had bagged 800 votes.

The oath-taking ceremony was largely attended, among others, by federal and provincial legislators, ministers, diplomats, educationists, senior officers of both the Sindh and the city governments.

Shortly after taking the oath, Mustafa Kamal announced a donation of Rs 20 million to earthquake victims from his discretionary funds.

Later talking to newsmen, he promised to resolve the problems being confronted by the people, and said his priority would be to improve water supply and sewerage networks, and to bring about improvement in education, health, transport and sanitation sectors.

Besides endeavours would be made to develop infrastructure for boosting business activities in the megapolis, he said.

Mr Mustafa thanked the MQM chief, Altaf Hussain, and citizens of Karachi for reposing confidence in him, saying that he would leave no stone unturned in improving the quality of life of the people.

At the outset, prayers were offered for the earthquake victims.

Earlier, 73 members of the city council were administered oath of their offices at the City Council Hall by district returning officer Agha Rafiq Ahmed. Four councillors could not be administered oath owing to their absence from the ceremony. The city council is expected to meet on Oct 20 to elect the Naib Nazim of the City.

The 255-member strong house of the city council comprises nazims of all the 178 union councils of the city and those elected against 59 seats reserved of women, nine seats of labourers/peasants and nine seats of minorities.

TOWN NAZIMS: Nazims of all the 18 towns and 178 UC nazims, naib nazims and councillors were also administered oath of their offices by the concerned presiding officers.

The town nazims who took oath of their offices are: Wasey Jalil (Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town), Col (Retd) Tahir Mashhedi (Jamshed Town), Mumtaz Hameed (North Nazimabad Town), Mohammad Hanif Surti (New Karachi Town), Mohammad Maood Hayat (Gulberg Town), Hafiq Usama Quadri (Liaquatabad Town), Ansar Ahmed (Malir Town), Mohammad Dilawar (Saddar Town), Murtaza Baloch (Gadap Town), Abdul Haq (Orangi Town), Izharuddin Ahmed Khan (SITE Town), Kamran Akhtar (Baldia Town), Ismail Quraishi (Landhi Town), Arif Khan, advocate (Korangi Town), Malik Fayyaz (Lyari Town), Mohammad Imran Pervaiz (Shah Faisal Town), Mohammad Hamayun Khan (Keamari Town), Mohammad Umar Jaat (Bin Qasim Town).

Of the 18 towns of the city, top-slots in 14 towns have been bagged by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-backed Haq Parast group. Gadap, Bin Qasim and Lyari town nazims belong to Awam Dost group of PPP while the Keamari Town Nazim belongs to the PML-Q.

Later, the city nazim, along with nazims of 15 towns, visited the Quaid’s mausoleum to pay homage to the founder of the nation, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Floral wreaths were also laid on the Quaid’s mausoleum.

They also visited Paposhnagar and Azizabad graveyards and offered prayers for MQM chief Altaf Hussain’s mother Khursheed Begum, father late Nazeer Hussain, elder brother Nasir Hussain, nephew Arif Hussain and other Haq Parast Shuhada.

Hyderabad district nazim Kanwar Naveed, MPAs Arshad Shah and Masood Mehmood and taluka nazims of Hyderbad and Latifabad also visited graveyards and offered fateha for the relatives iof Altaf Hussain and other Haq Parast Shuhada.