Pakistan Peoples Party leader Najmi Alam has said that if Karachi’s next mayor is from his party, the person cannot complain about a lack of powers.

Alam, who is one of the three possible candidates for the slot, was speaking on Aaj News morning show ‘Aaj Pakistan with Sidra Iqbal’.

Karachi’s previous mayors, who were from the Jamaat-e-Islami and Muttahida Qaumi Movement, complained that they could not deliver as they only controlled 30% of the city and the Sindh government had not only stripped KMC of its powers but its ability to earn revenue to stay afloat. Najmi was speaking in that context.

Najmi Alam said Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had promised that the provincial government will support the next mayor regardless of party affiliation.

“Karachi is the most important city in Pakistan. Politics aside we need to work for the improvement of Karachi,” said Alam.

The PPP leader said that the Karachi local bodies elections were the most peaceful he had ever seen in the city. Najmi Alam agreed that voter turnout was lower but blamed it on the confusion surrounding the polls, which were rescheduled multiple times since July 2022. No one was certain if the election was going to happen, he said.

He said that PPP and JI secured more seats because they had done their ‘homework’ and it enabled them to bring their voters to polling stations.

The PTI did not do the homework and it was ‘overconfident’, said the PPP leader.

“They believed that they would carry Imran Khan’s picture and people would vote for them.”

Najmi Alam said that PPP had estimated that it would win around 100 UCs and that the JI was going to get around 90. The estimates for the PTI were 35-40 seats, he said.

The PTI has won 40 seats.

If MQMP had not boycotted the election, the PTI would have won only 10-12 seats, said Najmi Alam.

He said that the PPP respected JI’s electoral mandate. “People of Karachi have voted for them. They did not get bogus votes.”

Emphasizing that election was free and fair, Najmi Alam said that during the recounting of votes, one PPP UC went to JI and one JI UCs came to PPP.

Alliance with JI

Senior journalist Mazhar Abbas also joined the discussion via the phone. He spoke about the cordial relations PPP and JI enjoyed in the 1970s and early 1980s when JI’s Abdul Sattar Afghani was the mayor of Karachi. PPP’s Umar Yousaf Daida and Abdul Khaliq Allahwala worked with Afghani as deputy mayors and enjoyed good working relationships with him, said Mazhar.

Najmi Alam was the opposition leader in the Karachi city council when Niamatullah was the mayor in the 2000s.

Recalling his role as the opposition leader, Najmi said that he did ‘positive opposition’ under Niamatullah. The PPP never did the ‘leg pulling’ and budgets were passed within one hour, he said.

This kind of cordial working relationship was not seen between PPP and MQM.

Mazhar said that MQMP and PPP have love-hate relations due to a conflict of interest. “When your interests are common, your conflict also becomes common.”

He said that if PPP and JI do not have a good working relationship Karachi will suffer.

Tough questions

The PPP leader also answered some of the tough questions about his candidature and the dispute over constituency boundaries.

MQMP boycotted the election accusing the PPP of gerrymandering.

Najmi Alam said that the party should have raised objections when delimitations were being carried out.

He said during the delimitations process PPP submitted 52 objections in the South district where PTI and MQMP filed one objection each. JI did not file any objection and this was just one district.

In the entire city, only 8-10 objections were filed by MQMP people. It should have filed objections to delimitation back then, according to Najmi Alam.

Najmi Alam’s candidature was challenged in the court because he was Karachi Water and Sewage Board (KWSB) vice chairman when the election process started.

The PPP leader said he had resigned from the position immediately before filing his nomination papers.