PTI leadership considers to dethrone mayor, deputies

• Ali Nawaz likely to bring a motion of no-confidence against Anser Aziz
• Mayor says PTI chief may not approve ‘horse trading’ for petty gains

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won all three National Assembly seats in the federal capital, the local leadership is considering to turn the tables on the mayor and three deputy mayors, all belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-N in the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).

In the immediate aftermath of the general elections where PTI has bagged more votes and seats than any other party, the local cadres of grass root leadership and representative of the local bodies have started to ruminate their options to dethrone the local bodies’ leadership, elected some two years before the general elections.

In a similar bid, opposition leader in MCI Ali Nawaz Awan has started to get the desired number to bring a motion of no-confidence against Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz. At present, MCI has a total membership of 77 Union Council chairmen. Out of these chairmen, 47 belong to the Pakistan Muslim League-N, while 29 belong to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

After the local bodies’ elections, 14 of the independent candidates, who were elected primarily due to their own social connections and good will, decided to join PML-N. Now that, the PML-N government is no more and its leadership in peril while the next government is all set to start working, the local cadres of PTI are confident that many from this lot can be won over.

“Everybody who is in the opposition wants to be on the other side of the fence. MCI is no different. Since it’s inception, I have shown good will and took personal interest in the demands and issues of the opposition members,” said Mayor Anser Aziz while talking to Pakistan Today. When asked whether the opposition can show him the door through a no-confidence motion, he said that his party members were staunch in their support and the numbers won’t tumble.

“We have an immense majority over them. We are almost 50 members in MCI. It would be really hard if not downright impossible for them to dethrone us,” he said. “I don’t think PTI Chairman Imran Khan will approve such wheeling, dealing and horse trading for such petty gains,” he said, adding that PTI strives to make a clean, clear, unspoiled impression on the minds of its voters and masses at large.

Also, “there are number of legal formalities involved in it. A successful motion of no-confidence, in all likelihood, was bound to open a can of worms that neither party can afford,” said a union council chairman who wished not to be named. “Not yet as we are waiting and watching how things unfold,” was the reply of Ali Nawaz when asked about the possible no-confidence motion against the mayor.

He said that his party has to weigh the pros and cons of any such movement. “The local bodies system is rotten to the core. It has structural flaws that hinder it from delivering a good governance and service provisions,” he said, adding that his party would most likely try to bring in revolutionary changes in the laws of the local bodies in order to empower the representatives of the people at the ground level.