Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader and former mayor of Karachi Waseem Akhtar said on Sunday that his party would challenge the local body elections in Karachi and Hyderabad, adding that the people had “rejected” the local body election on MQM-P’s call for a boycott.

“The Election Commission of Pakistan and the provincial government have not fulfilled their responsibility. Karachi wants a free and fair election,” Akhter said while speaking exclusively on Aaj News programme “Rubaroo” with host Shaukat Paracha.

He said that the Sindh government carried out the delimitation of the constituencies by itself. “We went to the Sindh government on the direction of the Supreme Court.”

Akhtar said that the people had rejected the election. “We will challenge this election on every forum.”

The MQM-P leader said that the new mayor of the metropolis would not have any powers. “We pray that whoever becomes the mayor will solve the problems of Karachi.”

He demanded fresh delimitations in Karachi, saying that the elections were not held according to the constitution.

Speaking in the program, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Zaidi said that his party was the largest party in the local elections. “We had candidates in 241 out of 246 union councils and no party has the number of candidates close to us.”

Zaidi said that the ECP gave a decision on PTI’s petition and that based on the election commission’s decision, the LG polls were held today.

He said that the elections were conducted peacefully, but “polling did not start till 12 noon in many places”.

“PTI’ is not competing with any political party, our competition is with the state institutions.”