‘Holding LG polls in Karachi now to make no difference’

Even if the local government elections were held in Karachi the next day, the newly elected representatives of the people would not be able to take the oath and assume charge of the municipal agencies in the city until the poll process was not complete in the entire province.

This was disclosed by Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani on Wednesday as he spoke to media persons after inaugurating a community centre and library in Hussain Hazara Goth in District East.

Ghani, who is also the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Karachi president, said many areas in the Hyderabad division had been devastated by heavy monsoon rains and floods and the local government elections could not be held there for the next three to four months.

He told the media that the local government system would remain incomplete until holding of the municipal polls in the flood-affected parts of the province. He was of the view that various political parties had been unnecessarily making a hue and cry about the issue of the delay in the local government elections in Karachi.

The labour minister said he did not find any logic behind showing unnecessary haste in holding the local government polls in Karachi.

He maintained that all the office-bearers and candidates of the PPP in Karachi wanted early local government elections in the city. The PPP leaders and candidates were hopeful that their party would secure overwhelming success and emerge as the largest party in Karachi after the municipal polls, he added.

Ghani said the Sindh government had plainly informed the Election Commission of Pakistan about the hardships the administration and police could face while holding the municipal polls in the city.

He remarked that heightened security arrangements were required for the municipal elections as every street and neighbourhood was involved in the poll process. Answering a question, the Sindh labour minister told journalists that the provincial government had duly registered the flood victims who had come to Karachi from the calamity-hit parts of the province as registration of over 20,000 people had been carried out.

He said that apart from them, a number of displaced flood victims had opted to stay at the homes of their relatives in Karachi. Ghani claimed that makeshift accommodations had been provided to homeless flood victims in government buildings in Karachi and a large majority of them had now returned to their native places.

The labour minister clarified that the provincial government had not been applying any coercive means for ensuring such a repatriation process as the flood victims had been returning to their native areas out of their own free will.

To a question, he said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was a corrupt political entity as it had been involved in corrupt practices before coming into power. He said that people associated with the PTI had also confirmed that. He alleged that the PTI had unlawfully received funds from 350 foreign companies, and Indian and Israeli donors.