KARACHI: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has agreed to lend its fullest support to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as the single largest political party in the upcoming election for Karachi’s mayor.

This was announced on Saturday as a delegation of PPP led by Sindh Labour and Human Resources Minister Saeed Ghani met PML-N Sindh President Shah Muhammad Shah at the latter’s residence. The delegation comprised PPP Sindh General Secretary Waqar Mehdi and Najmi Alam.

The two sides agreed that like the centre the two parties would work together as allied parties in Sindh and cooperate with each other not just for the upcoming mayoral election but also for all upcoming by-elections and the next general polls in the province.

Talking to media persons after the meeting, Ghani who is also PPP Karachi President said that every successful political party had the desire to clinch the Karachi mayoral position. But as per the moral principle, the single largest party has the first claim on this post, he said.

He reiterated the stance of his party that the People’s Party had emerged as the single largest political party after local government polls in Karachi.

He said the PPP had the desire to take along Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) as the people of Karachi had also reposed confidence in the JI. “We need to work together to serve the residents of Karachi in the best possible manner,” he said.

He expressed gratitude to the PML-N for offering the fullest support to the PPP for the upcoming election for mayor of the city. Ghani hoped that the PPP would get support from other political parties as well for the mayoral poll.

To a question, Saeed Ghani said that PPP with 96 seats had emerged as the single largest party in Karachi after the latest polls while JI is runner-up with 83 seats. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has won 43 seats while PML-N has secured eight seats in the latest polls.

He said that the next mayor of Karachi would function according to the powers prescribed for the mayoral position in the provincial local government law. “We don’t have the powers for the mayor in our pockets,” said Ghani while responding to JI’s criticism about mayoral powers.

To another question, Ghani said that it was their foremost desire to jointly work with the JI in the local government set-up of Karachi.

PML-N Sindh President Shah Muhammad Shah said that both parties had agreed to work together for the development and progress of Karachi and the rest of the megacity.

He said that both parties had agreed to nominate the candidate for Karachi’s mayor on a meritorious basis. He hoped that rest all the stakeholders would also provide support in this regard.