The ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in Sindh Monday nominated former administrator Karachi Murtaza Wahab as mayor of the city.
In a press conference, PPP leader Nisar Khuhro said his party’s nomination for deputy mayor of Karachi was Salman Murad while Kashif Shoro was the nominee for Hyderabad mayor.
Wahab served as administrator Karachi from 2021 until his resignation in September last year.
His resignation came after the Sindh High Court’s decision to temporarily restrict Karachi Metropolitan Corporation from collecting the Municipal Utility Charges and Taxes (MUCT) through K-Electric bills.
The mayor elections are set to take place on June 15. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) are yet to announce their nominees.
Currently, no single party has a simple majority of 179 votes in the house, the count that is needed to ascertain who wins the coveted seat of the port city’s mayor. As per the latest statistics, the total number of the PPP, PML-N and JUI-F is 175.
On the other hand, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has emerged as the second largest party with total 130 seats, including the reserved seats, while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) bagged a total 63 seats. The alliance between the two parties stands at 193.
On Twitter, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari congratulated all the nominated candidates and said “the people have expressed faith in the PPP. Now let’s go win the next round and get going with with what we do best, serving the people.”
“A special thank you to Hyderabad & Karachi for trusting us for the first time. I have full faith that Shoro & Wahab will be the first but not the last PPP mayors of our two great cities.”
