• JI-PTI alliance stands at 193 in 366-strong house
• Total number of PPP, PML-N and JUI-F is 175
• Parties yet to announce candidates for mayor, deputy mayor

KARACHI: The electoral process for seats reserved for women, labourers, minorities, youth, persons with disabilities and transgender persons in the City Council of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has been completed and the Pakistan Peoples Party becomes the single-largest party in the 367-strong house, it emerged on Sunday.

The Sindh election commission has completed the process and sent the results to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for official notification, which is expected to be released later this week.

The City Council is comprised of a total of 367 members, including 246 directly elected chairmen of union committees and 121 reserved seats which were allocated to parties on the basis of the number of UCs they won in the Jan 15 local government elections.

As result of one UC has been withheld, the house is now consisted of 366 members and any party having support of 184 members can win the June 15 election for Karachi mayor and deputy mayor.

Officials said that the PPP has emerged as the single largest party in the City Council with total 155 seats, including 34 seats reserved for women, five each for minorities, labourers and youth, one for persons with disabilities and one transgenders.

The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) is the second largest party with total 130 seats, including 29 women, four each reserved for labourers, minorities and youth and one each for persons with disabilities and transgenders.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) got a total of 63 seats including 14 women, two each seats reserved for labourers, minorities and youth and one each reserved for persons with disabilities and transgenders.

Other parties including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawz (PML-N) got total 16 seats, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) got four seats and Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) secured one seat that it won in the Jan 15 local government election.

The PPP already got support from PML-N and JUI-F and it got support from a total of 175 members in the City Council.

The JI and PTI also forged an electoral alliance for Karachi mayor and their accumulated number in the City Council is 193.

While the numbers game is clearly in JI’s favour after it got support from the PTI for the election of Karachi mayor, the PPP has insisted that after May 9 violence many UC chairmen belonging to the PTI got in touch with them and made clear that they would not vote for the JI candidate.

Fearing horse-trading by the PPP, the JI also moved the Sindh High Court demanding that its all members, especially those belonging to the PTI, be allowed to cast their votes in a free, fair and transparent manner.

The JI-PTI nominated Hafiz Naeemur Rehman as their candidate for Karachi mayor. PPP is expected to field former Karachi administrator Murtaza Wahab. However, so far no party had made an official announcement about its candidate for deputy mayor.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2023