Friday, Mar 29, 2024 | Last Update : 05:57 PM IST

  Imprisoned MQM nominee to be elected Karachi mayor

Imprisoned MQM nominee to be elected Karachi mayor

AGE CORRESPONDENT
Published : Aug 23, 2016, 5:45 am IST
Updated : Aug 23, 2016, 5:45 am IST

In a first, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Waseem Akhtar is set to be elected as Karachi mayor from behind the bars on August 24.

In a first, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Waseem Akhtar is set to be elected as Karachi mayor from behind the bars on August 24.

He will surely win hands down due to the sweeping numerical superiority of the MQM, which has 214 members out of total 308 elected members of the council of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

Although Mr Akhtar will be the first mayor to be elected while imprisoned, there are several instances when imprisoned federal or provincial legislators continued to hold the membership of elected forums. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari is one of them — who later become the President of the country.

Presently, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly member Ziaullah Afridi is in prison and keeps attending the sessions of the legislature after the Speaker issues his production orders.

Generally, the national and provincial speakers oblige while dealing with the production requests of lawmakers, who happen to be in jail. Mere detention on any criminal charge doesn’t lead to disqualification of an elected office holder.

Waseem Akhtar is in jail for over a month, and there are no prospects of his release in the near future because he faces a multitude of heinous crime cases.

Even if he succeeds in getting bail in a case or two, he will have many other charges in which he will have to secure such facility from relevant courts.

Among others, he has also been booked in seven terrorism cases relating to the May 12, 2007 bloodshed in Karachi, claiming more than 50 lives, when the then suspended Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, had made a bid to visit the city during Pervez Musharraf’s era.

Location: Pakistan, Islamabad