KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party makes its claim to rule all the district councils of the province after having attained an unassailable majority in the rural fringes of the city, according to results of the nnalphase of the localgovernment election that took final shape on Sunday.

According to unofficial results, the PPP has won 21 union councils and seats of as many district councillors 18 in Malir and three in Karachi West, enabling it to rule the Karachi District Council (KDC). A party or group requires at least 20 seats to head the KDC, which has a total strength of 38 32 from Malir and six from district west.

The Awami Ittehad, a conglomeration of local influential personalities and social activists won seats of eight district councillors, while the remaining seats were won by independents and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

`We have an unassailable majority in the KDC while a couple of results are still awaited where our candidates have a comfortable lead,` said a party spokesman while speaking to Dawn.

Sources in the PPP hinted that Salman Murad, son of the slain PPP MPA Abdullah Murad, and Akhtar Marfani, who had won district councilor`s slots from Chowkundi union council, would be candidates for the office of KDC chairman.However, they added, a final selection would be made by the party`s leadership once all the results were put on its table.

It will be the first time when, like the rest of the municipalities of the province, the KDC will be ruled by a political party. It had, however, been dominated by the PPP till 1992 when the municipal system was suspended for a decade until it was revived by retired General Pervez Musharraf`s regime, who changed the entire system, scrapped the KDC and merged it with a huge Karachi district.

Gen Musharraf`s system effectively ended in 2009 when the last two LG election terms, overseen by the military ruler, expired.

The PPP`s provincial government first revived the KDC by scrapping Musharraf`s law but then it, too, declared the entire city an urban territory and added 25 union committees to its local government system.

The additional union committees soon stood null and void under a Sindh High Court judgment, bringing the city back to its previous makeup.

DMC South The PPP has bagged 11 out of 31 seats in the district municipal corporation (DMC), south, making it the largest party in the district with a slight edge of one union committee over the MQM, which has bagged 10 UCs.The hung mandate in the DMC has thrown the ball in the court of Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and the Jamaati-Islami, which have won three, two and one UCs, respectively.

PPP leadership is confident that it will be able to woo the two independent candidates as well as the three parties, which have together bagged six seats. But the same six seats can also enable the MQM to rule another district in addition to the four central, west, Korangi and east.

Observers say the situation is tricky but given the scale of animosity between the MQM and the PTI,the scale can tipinfavour of the PPPin the end. `The MQM can bag the DMC if the three smaller parties join it, which appears highly unlil(ely,` says a political analyst.

DMC Malir The PPP bagged five union committees in Malir district, still short of two members to clinch the DMC. Its total strength is 13, the smallest among its peers.

PPP leaders claim the party was leading on a union committee and after its final result was made public, it would require just a single seat to claim a majority.

An independent candidate was already in the loop, besides there was Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen, which had won a seat in Jaffer-iTayyar union committee, they said.