Ghani offers mediation between PPP and JI if Naeem accepts deputy mayor post

• Ghani says Naeem started conceding his defeat in mayoral election.
• Minister says new PTI representatives refused to vote in JI's favour.
• He says PPP had consensus in finalising its candidate for Karachi mayor.

Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani has offered mediation between his party, Pakistan Peoples Party, and Jamat-e-Islami (JI) in the matter regarding the Karachi mayor's appointment if the latter's candidate for the slot, Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman, agrees to become the deputy mayor, The News reported.

The proposal came in response to a question during Ghani's media talk in Karachi. The minister volunteered to earnestly persuade the top leadership of his party if Naeem accepts the offered post, saying that PPP desired to take along all political parties which had won seats in the local government elections in the city, to manage Karachi's affairs.

PPP has become the single largest party with 155 members, including the reserved seats, in the 367-strong house after the LG polls.

Currently, no single party has a simple majority of 179 votes in the house, the count that is needed to ascertain who wins the coveted seat of the port city's mayor. As per the latest statistics, the total number of the PPP, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) is 175.

On the other hand, the JI has emerged as the second largest party with a total of 130 seats, including reserved seats, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) bagged a total of 63 seats. The alliance between the two parties stands at 193. 

Apparently, the alliance has enough numbers to win the coveted seat but the PPP has been claiming that a “jiyala” will rule the metropolis this time and has selected an unelected candidate Murtaza Wahab for the post of Karachi mayor.

Elections for the Karachi mayor's slot are scheduled to be held on June 15.

Speaking to the journalists on Saturday, Ghani said that Naeem, who is also JI's Karachi emir, has started conceding his defeat in the upcoming mayoral election after sensing that he doesn’t have the support of the people.

He said he had disclosed before the May 9 violent incidents in the country that the newly elected local government representatives of the PTI had informed their party leadership that they wouldn’t vote in favour of the JI’s candidate for the mayoral poll.

PPP’s Karachi president said that Naeem should tell how many of the newly elected local government representatives of his own party and those of the PTI had come when they were invited to Idara Noor-e-Haq for a reception.

He disclosed that a few UC chairmen of the PTI and not all the newly elected local government representatives had reached the venue after receiving the invitation and resultantly Naeem had to cancel the reception.

The labour minister said that he couldn’t do anything if the JI’s Karachi leader alleged that a newly elected UC chairman of the PTI had been abducted after he refused to vote in favour of the JI’s mayoral candidate.

He told journalists that the government was under an obligation to produce for the mayoral election the PTI’s UC chairmen who had been imprisoned after the registration of FIRs against them, but the government couldn’t compel any of these UC chairmen to vote in favour of the JI’s candidate.

To a question, he said that there was consensus within the PPP in finalising the party’s candidate for the Karachi mayoral poll and all reports doing the rounds in this regard were completely baseless.

Ghani said that besides himself, Sindh PPP President Nisar Khuhro, Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi, Karachi General Secretary Javed Nagori, Deputy General Secretary Najmi Alam, and other office-bearers of the party from all the districts were present at the time of the filing of nomination papers of Wahab, showing that there was complete consensus in choosing the party’s mayoral election.

He said that on the basis of the ongoing collective efforts of all the key PPP leaders, the party’s candidates would win the upcoming elections for the Karachi mayor and deputy mayor. He said that all of Naeem's dreams regarding this would be shattered on June 15.