KARACHI: The newly elected local government representatives in Sindh and Punjab have taken charge of their offices, after taking oath on Thursday. According to Election Commission of Pakistan, over 12,000 newly elected LG members took oath of their offices in Sindh. The presiding officers and judicial officers administered oath to members elected from municipal committees, town committees, district councils and union committees. In Karachi, over 1,500 newly elected local government representatives of 209 union committees of the city’s six districts and 38 union councils of the Karachi District Council also took the oath. Of the total elected representatives, 988 are wards councillors, 247 chairmen and as many vice chairmen and 38 district councillors. MQM’s Waseem Akhtar took oath as the union council chairman. He had been nominated by the party to assume the office of the mayor. After taking oath as UC chairman, Waseem stated that his priority would be to clean the city and take appropriate measures in this regard. Leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf objected to taking oath in English and insisted on it being in Urdu. All other political leaders on the occasion agreed to this stance and later they took oath in Urdu. According to Election Commission of Pakistan, over 12,000 newly elected LG members took oath in Sindh. The presiding officers and judicial officers administered oath to those elected from municipal committees, town committees, district councils and union committees. Oath-taking ceremonies of newly elected chairmen and councillors of union councils of Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation and District Council Rawalpindi were held at Jinnah Hall, TMA Rawal Town and Pothohar Town Hall, Zila Kutchery. Returning officers administered the oath to the newly elected chairmen and councillors. The oath-taking ceremony started at 10am and continued till 4:30pm, which were held simply.