• Over 30 members of PTI stay away from polling
• PPP, JI workers clash after voting
• Hafiz Naeem to announce strategy today
• Bilawal congratulates Wahab, Salman Murad

KARACHI: Despite peaceful voting that underwent inside the Arts Council of Pakistan on Thursday in the final phase of local government elections that brought mayor of the Pakistan Peoples Party for the first time in the history of Karachi, the exercise became tainted with serious allegations of ‘abuse of powers’ and ‘forcibly disappearing’ members of the rival party against the ruling party.

Clashes also broke out between workers of the contesting parties after voting, which further intensified the situation.

Although PPP’s Barrister Murtaza Wahab and Salman Murad emerged victorious as Karachi mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, the echoes of ‘rigging’ allegations from the rival Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) got louder as majority of its members failed to reach the Arts Council to cast their vote for Jamaat-i-Islami’s Hafiz Naeemur Rehman and Advocate Saifuddin as per their party decision.

“Our [PTI’s] more than 30 members are missing and they all are being kept at safe houses of the PPP,” said a PTI statement issued after the voting. “The PPP has stolen the mandate of Karachi. We reject the elections of Karachi mayor and deputy mayor.”

The party, however, also vowed to take action against those members who failed to reach the polling station “without any valid reasons”.

JI vows to challenge PPP at every forum

The JI, which got 160 votes against Barrister Wahab’s 173, also rejected the results of mayoral elections.

The party vowed that it would not give up and would exercise every legal and democratic right to challenge the “feudalism and fascism of the PPP”.

“We will announce our future course of action on Friday [today] in a protest demonstration at Shahrah-i-Quaideen,” said Hafiz Naeem while speaking with party workers after the voting.

“This June 15 is the worst day in the democratic history of Pakistan. The PPP has once again murdered the democracy by snatching the mandate of Karachiites with the help of state machinery and the Election Commission of Pakistan,” he said.

He claimed that while all 130 elected members of the JI cast their votes in the mayoral election, 31 elected representatives of the PTI, including two women, “were abducted and not produced in the City Council. This is nothing but the fascism of the PPP”.

PPP celebrates

Unmoved by the allegations, the PPP leadership and workers celebrated the occasion.

PPP chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said in a tweet that he was “humbled, honoured and grateful” for the trust reposed in him and his party by the people of Pakistan as from Karachi to Kashmore the PPP has emerged victorious in Sindh LG elections. He congratulated Barrister Wahab and Salman Murad for being elected mayor and deputy mayor of Karachi.

A large number of PPP supporters gathered outside the Bilawal House in Clifton in the evening, chanted slogans and danced and distributed sweets among participants.

The atmosphere of jubilation was also reflected from the floor of the house of the Sindh Assembly which was echoed with huge greetings for the ruling party on the election of Barrister Wahab as first party mayor of the city.

Sindh minister and president of PPP Karachi chapter Saeed Ghani rejected all allegations of the rival parties, but admitted to have taken advantage of PTI’s ‘political weakness’ to get through the much-hyped mayoral election.

He said that the PTI was going through tough times across the country as even its founding members were quitting the party.

Eight JI workers briefly held after clash

Earlier, a little tense environment in and outside the Arts Council turned violent after the announcement of the mayoral election results were made.

The police backed by the Rangers resorted to baton charge to disperse workers of PPP and JI on main M. R. Kayani Road.

South-SSP Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that they closed gates of the Arts Council after 11am and only members of electoral colleges (chairmen, vice chairmen) were allowed inside.

He said that when it was announced that Barrister Wahab had won the mayor election, the JI and PPP workers standing outside the ACP gate chanted slogans.

“It followed clashes between them in which stones were used. Fearing law and order situation, the both police and Rangers resorted to baton charge to disperse them. Two or three workers of the JI were injured during the baton charge. The crowd dispersed shortly afterwards and all the eight workers of JI who had been detained were released later on,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 16th, 2023