N, MQM trounce opponents in LB polls

He congratulated army, Rangers, police, polling staff and ECP officials over successful completion of three phases of local government elections in two major provinces of the country.

Muttahida’s expected candidate for Karachi’s mayorship, Waseem Akhter, was elected as Chairman UC-11 of Disrtict East. According to unofficial results, Akhter defeated PPP’s District President Zulfiqar Qaimkhani.

The third phase of local government’s election was held in six districts of Karachi including District Central, West, Korangi, East, South and Malir.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) emerged the runner up in Karachi, securing 32 seats, according to unofficial results.

Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has congratulated Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) in their win in local government elections and hoped that now they would serve Karachiites.

According to district wise details, the PPP managed to bag five seats from Malir District out of total 13 union councils, four each from West and East districts and one seat from District Central. The party also won three seats of vice chairman and 15 ward councilors.

Initial trends indicate that PML-N is leading in Punjab while in Karachi MQM is in front. “We will display the results of every union council at the district offices by Monday”, he said.

In Rawalpindi, Awami Muslim League (AML) head Sheikh Rashid has accepted his party’s defeat in the third and final phase of Local Government elections.

The PTI-JI alliance blamed the provincial election commissioner for widespread irregularities in the election that it said ultimately benefited the MQM. He said the Sindh government respected and applauded the MQM’s mandate and wanted to see prosperity in the metropolis along with them.

Vote count at more than 4,000 polling stations in Karachi begun after the process of polling for local body election came to a largely peaceful end.

The MQM accused the Muhajir Qaumi Movement-Haqiqi of rigging in Landhi and an MQM leader asked the provincial election commissioner to stop polling in seven UCs.

“I hope these institutions will continue to cooperate with the Election Commission in future as well”, the CEC said.