File photo of Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman
While the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) marked with celebrations Murtaza Wahab’s victory in the mayoral election for Karachi on Thursday, his rival Hafiz Naeemur Rehman of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) rejected the results and called for nationwide protests.
Wahab won the election with 173 votes thanks to support from the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl). Rehman, meanwhile, only secured 160 votes despite an alliance with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), as 30 of its union council members announced they would not vote for the JI’s candidate and abstained. The same pattern repeated with the deputy mayor’s election, with PPP’s Salman Abdullah Murad defeating JI’s Saifuddin.
But while the PPP celebrated the win at a rally, with party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari congratulating the mayors who won from Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Mirpurkhas, Nawabshah and Larkana, the JI accused the Sindh ruling party of rigging and vowed to contest the election results.
Addressing a press conference, Rehman alleged that the Sindh government had coerced the PTI members who were supposed to vote for him. Accusing the provincial government of failing to produce 31 PTI UC chairman for voting despite court orders, he said the PPP had “stolen” the election. Rejecting the results, he urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to declare it “null and void” and announce a fresh schedule.
He also announced that the JI would observe a ‘Black Day’ today (Friday) and stage demonstrations against its “stolen mandate” across the country.
Rebutting the JI’s allegations, Sindh Labor Minister Saeed Ghani said it was wrong to claim that PTI members had abstained from the election under duress or incentives. “The PTI is going through tough times across the country as even its founding members are quitting the party,” he said, noting that Rehman had erred in siding with a party in flux. However, to a question, he admitted that the PPP had taken advantage of the decline in PTI’s political fortunes to facilitate the elections of Wahab as the mayor of Karachi.