Karachi LG polls: PPP, JI secure equal number of seats

• Winners of 215 Karachi UCs announced.
• Polls were held on 235 out of 246 UCs.
• ECP has withheld results of 20 UCs.

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) both bagged 84 seats of union committees (UC) in the Karachi local government (LG) elections — held on January 15 — according to the notification issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday, The News reported. 

The ECP's notification declared the final winners of a total of 215 UCs in the metropolis.

The LG polls were held for 235 out of 246 UCs in Karachi, however, the  Election Commission announced the results of candidates who emerged successful in 215 UCs and withheld the results of 20 UCs. 

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was able to secure 40 UCs, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) 5 while Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI) won in one UC. An independent is also among the winning candidates. 

In this way, the PPP and its allies won a total of 91 UCs.

It may also be noted that Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) boycotted the second phase of the elections held in 16 districts of Sindh's two divisions — Karachi and Hyderabad — on Sunday.

Also, MQM-P cheered the low turnout saying that "Karachi won and rigging lost."

It should also be highlighted that the Sindh local body polls also witnessed long delays which attracted conspiracies and criticism from all the major parties participating in the elections. 

Hyderabad LG results

The ECP also issued a notification on the seats of Hyderabad UCs, according to which the mayor of Hyderabad will come for the first time from PPP which became the largest party with 92 seats.

There are 160 seats in Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. The PTI won 39 seats, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) two seats whereas independent candidates bagged 13 seats.

In the LG polls, the PPP won 37 UC seats in Thatta, while three seats were also won by independent candidates. Other parties failed to secure any UC in Thatta.

Likewise, PPP candidates attained success on all 9 seats of the Municipal Committee Thatta, 7 of the UCs of Makli Town Committee, 8 of Gharo Town Committee and 3 seats of Sakro Town Committee.

The ECP issued the notification of nearly 4,000 candidates successful in the second phase of Sindh local body elections from 16 districts.