Voting to elect the mayor and deputy mayor of Karachi along with chairmen and vice chairmen of local councils across Sindh is underway.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) leader Wasim Akhtar is the most likely candidate to become the mayor of Karachi.
Wasim Akhtar will come from prison to cast his mayoral vote today (Wednesday) and it is expected that he will handle the operations from within a jail cell
The polling began at 9:00 am and will continue till 5:00 pm.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has allowed voters with expired CNICs to cast their votes.
He is up against Pakistan People’s Party’s Karamullah Waqasi, Independent candidate Muhammad Rafeeq Khan, and Irshad Hussain.
For Deputy Mayor, Irshad Wohra of MQM, Amanullah Afridi of PML-N and an independent candidate named Naveed Javed are contesting.
On the other hand, People’s Party’s candidate has been elected unopposed as Chairman in Malir District and polling for Vice-Chairman has begun.
READ MORE: What MQM Chief Altaf Hussain actually said?
Meanwhile, MQM has unanimously won Chairman and Vice-Chairman seats in Central District of Karachi.
Mayor-Designate MQM’s Wasim Akhtar is in police’s custody after the court rejected his plea to extend judicial remand last month in a case filed against Altaf Hussain for alleged inciting speech against national institutions.
Akhtar was nominated in the case as a facilitator among other MQM members.
The mayoral election in Karachi has come in during a political turmoil in the city after Dr Farooq Sattar left workers of the party and sections of media confused with his press conference on Tuesday.
He announced detachment with Altaf Hussain, founder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement who is residing in London for over two decades in self-imposed exile.
