Setback for Naeem as two PTI UC chairmen say they will not vote for him

The Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) candidate for the Karachi mayor, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, has suffered a setback as two union committee (UC) chairmen of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday announced that they would not abide by their party’s instructions to vote for the JI’s mayoral candidate in the election scheduled for June 15.

The JI is the second largest party in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation City Council with 130 votes. It is followed by the PTI with 63 votes. If all the members of the PTI vote for the JI, Rehman will have more than a simple majority in the House of around 370 members.

Unverified reports are also circulating that as many as 24 PTI City Council members would not vote for the JI. A list of 24 PTI members was widely circulated on Monday who were said to be not voting for Rehman.

Dissident voters

In separate statements, two PTI UC chairmen Asad Aman and Imran Parwani announced they would not follow the instructions issued by the PTI to vote for Rehman on June 15. One of them remarked that he could not vote for an ‘outsider’.

They, however, stated that they would also not vote for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate.

PTI’s warning

The Karachi PTI chapter on Monday reiterated the party’s decision to support the JI in the election for the city’s mayor and warned its dissident City Council members of legal action in case they skipped the session or did not vote according to the party policy.

In a statement, the party said those who had won the local government elections on the PTI ticket had to follow the party’s policy. The PTI also accused the PPP-led Sindh government of trying to change loyalties of its elected City Council members. It alleged that some of its members were kidnapped so that they could be forced to not vote for the JI.

The party said the Supreme Court had closed the doors of floor-crossing but the PPP was still trying to use unethical means to clinch the seat of the Karachi mayor. Those violated party policy would de-seated, the party said.

Old video

A video clip of Sindh PTI President Haleem Adil Sheikh also circulated on social media on Monday in which he was saying that the PTI would not become part in the current political system.

The statement insinuated that the PTI would abstain from the Karachi mayor election. However, Sheikh, later, on his Twitter account uploaded a video statement and said that his two-and-a-half-month-old video was circulated to mislead the PTI members of the City Council.

“My two-and-a-half-month-old video has gone viral on PPP's social media,” he said. He also reiterated that on the instructions of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, the party had announced its unconditional support for the JI’s mayoral candidate. “I have also issued a directive to the PTI chairmen yesterday [to vote JI’s candidate]”.

PPP censured

Meanwhile, the JI’s mayoral candidate, Rehman, who is also the city emir of the party, stated on Monday that all the efforts being made by the PPP to compel its political opponents to switching their loyalties were useless because any vote against the party policy would not be counted in the mayoral election and anyone who did so would also be disqualified in line with the Supreme Court judgment.

He alleged that the PPP had been demonstrating the worst kind of fascism against its political opponents, particularly the PTI, in order to install a Jiyala mayor in the city. He lambasted the PPP for the crackdown on the PTI on the pretext of the May 9 mayhem so that its City Council members could be forced to support the PPP in the mayoral election.

He said the PTI chairman and its Sindh and Karachi chiefs had already announced their party line that all the elected UC chairmen of the PTI would vote for the JI in the mayoral election. Against this backdrop, it was illegal and unconstitutional for the PPP to try to pressurise the PTI’s UC chairmen into voting for its candidate, he added.

He demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan take notice of the situation. Rehman explained that the JI had already taken the ECP on board in connection with the apex court’s historical verdict against horse trading.

He also expressed the hope that the judiciary would abolish an unconstitutional legislation made by the PPP government in Sindh to allow an unelected person to contest for the mayor’s slot.

He argued that amending the local government law after announcement of the polls was unconstitutional and illegal. The PPP had refused to accept the people’s mandate in the past even at the cost of disintegration of the country, the JI leader remarked.