KARACHI: Terming dismally low fifteen percent trunout in recent local bodies’ elections in the megacity Karachi improper representation of Karachiites, Pasban Democratic Party PDP Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Wednesday demanded fresh polls after carrying out new delimitations as per the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The fifteen percent turnover means that other eighty-five percent voters have showed no-confidence on the local government elections in Karachi and the successful candidates in fact have no real public mandate. He said it would be morally and politically incorrect to give the administration of the megacity to these candidates who don’t enjoy real confidence of the Karachiites.
He said it is prudent that in the light of the verdict of the Supreme Court of Pakistan new delimitations should be made in the megacity, ensuring that each consistency should have equal representation of people. He said political engineering in delimitation process should be ended for good.
He regretted that now some political quarters are giving the results of the local government elections an ethnic color. He said we reject ethnic hatred in Karachi and all overtures based on ethnic divide of the megacity. He said Karachi is a multilingual and multicultural city. All citizens living in Karachi irrespective of their language and cultural background are Karachi and no one could be discrimination. He said that we reject the new controversy being introduced by some vested interests of local and non-local Karachiites. He said all permanent residents of Karachi, having Karachi as their permanent address on the national identity cards of locals of Karachi irrespective of which language they speak.
Altaf Shakoor said suggested that local bodies’ elections should be held on the same day with elections of national and provincial assemblies so that political engineering of ruling parties should be ended for good. He said we should develop a sense of nationalism instead of dividing the Karachi on ethnic and linguistic lines.
He said that all political parties should join hands to resolve the issues of Karachi. He said in this regard a ‘Karachi Charter’ should be devised and signed by all stakeholders of the megacity so that their collective energies are utilised for the progress and prosperity of the megacity. He said his party, PDP, is ready to play its role in proposed ‘Karachi Charter’ always and anytime.
