AFTER a nearly three-year gap, Karachi once again has an elected mayor. The PPP’s Murtaza Wahab won the prized slot on Thursday, though not without controversy. Mr Wahab beat the runner-up, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, by a slim margin, with the JI crying foul over the result.

The religious party did appear to have the numbers in the City Council, yet some ‘creative’ mathematics, resulting from the mysterious absence of around 30 PTI members from the election process, ensured that the PPP’s candidate carried the day.

Hafiz Naeem claimed the PTI members had been “abducted”, while the PTI, which had instructed its members to vote for the JI candidate, also alleged that over 30 of its members had been kept at “safe houses”.

The PPP has brushed aside these accusations and is in celebration mode, thrilled at the prospect of one of its own jiyalas heading the administration of Pakistan’s economic capital.

The controversy surrounding the election is unfortunate, and the PPP will have to convince the other parties that it was a fair contest. However, Mayor Wahab’s honeymoon period will not last long, as running Karachi is akin to wearing a crown of thorns.

While the mayor-elect has some administrative experience in running the metropolis — he was made the city’s unelected administrator in 2021 — the challenges confronting Karachi are huge.

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The crime rate is sky-high, decades of neglect have resulted in crumbling infrastructure, and civic bodies are corrupt and infested with inefficient workforces whose sole aim is to line their own pockets.

This has ensured that Karachi has become one of the world’s most unliveable cities. It is this unenviable state of affairs that Mayor Wahab will have to transform.

However, one thing going in his favour is the fact that now Karachi and the provincial administration will be run by the same party. In decades past, either the JI or MQM ran the mayoralty, while mostly it was the PPP that was running the province, resulting in administrative friction.

Murtaza Wahab should use this opportunity to plan a better future for Karachi and its citizens. He can start by convincing his party to give back the many civic functions the provincial government has taken over to the elected mayoralty.

Should the PPP fail to uplift the metropolis, Bilawal House will have to answer to the people.

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2023