The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has experienced a setback as a result of the Sindh government’s removal of Hyderabad and Karachi’s East and Korangi district administrators at the direction of the Pakistani Election Commission (ECP).

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan-recommended administrators of Hyderabad and Karachi’s East and Korangi districts were ousted by the Sindh government (MQM-P).

The district municipal corporations of the Korangi and East districts, as well as the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, were each given administrators by the provincial government, but these appointments have since been revoked by Muhammad Farooque, Syed Shakeel Ahmed, and Muhammad Sharif.

In a letter to the local government secretary, the ECP declared that transfers and postings were prohibited while local government (LG) elections were being held.

The electoral watchdog directed the local government secretary to either withdraw the order or kept it in abeyance till the culmination of the second phase of the local government elections in Karachi and Hyderabad divisions.

Earlier in December 2022, the provincial government appointed three government officers as the administrators in line with an agreement between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and MQM-P.

Before their appointment, Farooque and Ahmed had been working as administrators of Worker Model School, SITE Hyderabad, and Korangi, respectively. Sharif had earlier been working as director-charged parking at the DMC-Central.

There are still speculations with regard to the postponement of the local government polls in the metropolis for the seventh time as the Sindh government has written another letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) recently.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) had already written a letter to the ECP for amending the delimitation for the LG polls.

It is pertinent to mention here that the new phase of the Sindh LG polls is scheduled on January 15 in Karachi Division after its postponement six times.