PPP mayor can easily work for Karachi: Murtaza Wahab

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A Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-backed mayor for Karachi would be able to manage the city’s matters better compared to someone from another party, Murtaza Wahab — PPP’s nominee for the top slot — said Monday.

“Becoming the mayor isn’t a matter of ego. If a person belonging to any party other than the PPP gets elected as the mayor, then they’ll complain about administrative powers,” Wahab told a local TV.

Wahab, who served as Karachi administrator from August 2021 to December 2022, said: “Since PPP is in power in both the federal and provincial governments, it will be easy to run the affairs of the Karachi mayor belongs to PPP.”

Furthermore, he said, only 8 or 9 representatives of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — which threw its weight behind Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Hafiz Naeem Ur Rehman for the coveted post last month — attended a JI meeting recently, adding that the latter was not likely to have enough support for the post.

It is pertinent to mention here that elections for Karachi mayor are to be conducted on June 15, and ahead of the appointment, PPP and JI are two of the biggest contenders for the post. Both parties are engaged in a heated battle for the position, each claiming that it has the most voters.

“We want to solve the mayor’s issue in a political way,” Wahab said.

Moreover, he conceded that PPP has made mistakes in the past.

“There was criticism that we did not have buses and ambulances, but they can be seen today,” he said, referring to the recently launched People’s Bus Service.

He added that there was criticism on the issue of infrastructure in the city, but that too is being improved.