Karachis mayor-elect vows to run city from behind bars

The mayor-elect of Karachi, detained last month on allegations that he helped militants and criminals, vowed on Wednesday (August 24) to run Pakistan’s largest and richest city from his prison cell.

Waseem Akhtar’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which swept local elections in December, was prevented from taking office then because of delays in finalising local council elections in parts of the city. The final voting took place on Wednesday.

Early on Wednesday, Akhtar arrived in an armoured police vehicle at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation building to vote in elections that give MQM an unassailable lead. The party has dominated politics and commerce in Karachi for decades.

“Thank you Karachi, which has gone through this election in such difficult times,” Akhtar said after he voted. “It will go down in history that such an election has never before taken place in Pakistan.”

Security forces, political parties and criminals are all vying for greater control of Karachi, a port city that is home to 20 million people, the stock exchange and central bank, as well as militants and gangsters.

MQM has dominated the city for decades but a paramilitary crackdown since 2013 has undermined its power base.

Security forces have arrested scores of MQM members in the past year and accuse them of torture, murder and racketeering.

MQM denies any link to crime and accuses paramilitary forces of a series of extra-judicial killings of its members.

Politicians can govern from police custody under Pakistani law but it is not clear how Akhtar could run the city from his prison cell.

The courts are not expected to release him before he takes his oath, a ceremony likely to be held on August 30.