Murtaza Wahab, leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was elected mayor of Karachi after defeating Hafiz Naeemur Rehman of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
Sindh Ejaz Anwar Chohan, the provincial election commissioner, gave Wahab’s oath. Salman Abdullah, Wahab’s deputy, took the oath of office. Wahab received 173 votes, which put him in the lead during the June 15 elections for mayor, while the head of JI in Karachi received 160. JI vehemently rejected the polling and called it a drastic rigging and snatching of the mandate.
At the oath-taking ceremony, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, party chairman said, “We do not snatch elections, they are snatched from us.” The party chairman said, “We will respond to the rigging allegations with our performance.”
The residents of Karachi were given assurances by Bilawal that his party would keep resolving their issues as it has in the past.
“The only city that can free the nation from its problems is Karachi. I will be personally interested in Karachi’s problems,” he continued. “We must reject the politics of hatred and separation. By coming together, we can address the issues facing the city. “The federal and provincial governments are at the root of a number of problems in Karachi. The province government will work with the Karachi mayor, he added.
Would the people of Karachi hope for a better future under the Mayorship of Murtaza Wahab?
The elected Mayor Murtaza Wahab earned his B.Com from the University of Karachi, his LLB from the University of London, and his Bar at Law from Lincoln’s Inn. He has held a number of advisory positions in the Sindh government, including adviser on law, information, anti-corruption, environment, and coastal development. He has also worked as an advocate for the High Court of Sindh. He presently serves as the chief minister of Sindh’s legal advisor and spokesperson. Wahab, who served as a senator for a brief period, stood as a PPP candidate from PS-111 in the 2018 provincial elections but lost to Imran Ismail of the PTI, who went on to become the governor of Sindh. He is the son of the late Fouzia Wahab, the PPP’s media secretary.
Karachi had diversional political history. It had granted mandates to several parties in the national and provincial legislature as well as in the municipal bodies. Before the birth of MQM in Karachi in 1987, politics in Karachi was dominated by religious parties, like Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP) and JI. The two religious parties, however, had defeated in the middle of the 1980s. First, in 1985 non-party elections, some of their stalwarts lost to Independent candidates. But it was in 1987 that a new party, the Muhajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), won both the municipal elections for 1987 and the general elections for 1988, eliminating the religious groups. Despite various setbacks in between, the MQM looked back and continued to rule the politics of urban Sindh until August 22, 2016. After MQM’s ascendancy to become the exclusive voice of urban Sindh The PPP, despite its leadership’s constant claims that it stood for national unity, appeared to emerge as the single representative of rural Sindh. 2016 was a turning point when the MQM was subject to a huge crackdown and an unofficial ban. As a result of the party’s eventual dissolution, and as an alternative to MQM, the majority of the Urdu-speaking people found a ray of hope in PTI ( Pakistan Tehrik Insaaf ) and PTI was given the space to win their support.
Despite all odds and devolutions, there is no denying the fact that the MQM remains the powerful party of Karachi.
The MQM’s recent boycott of local government elections paved the way for PPP to win majority seats in local government elections, so this is a golden chance for Wahab, especially for his party to prove their worth and capability. But this is not going to be an easy task as Karachi has been a city of millions with diverse issues and challenges.
Different lingual and ethnic groups living inside Karachi make it more vulnerable to hardships. After the rapid anti-terrorism operation in Karachi, Karachi needs a “Karachi Action Plan.” Imagine a large city going nearly 50 years without a “master plan,” and even the one that was produced lacked vision. The city, which was formerly under the control of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), has now been divided, and the unexpected development of the Cantonment Board and Defence Housing Authority (DHA) made matters worse.
Would the people of Karachi hope for a better future under the Mayorship of Murtaza Wahab? As this is the chance for Wahab as well as his party to show result-oriented work, as for many years Karachi has been in the grip of uncountable catastrophes, from law and order situations to land grabbing, from traffic issues to water shortage, and from deplorable roads to unchecked increase in urbanization, and this the time that Karachi needs solutions of its core issues.
The writer is a freelance columnist.