ECP disqualifies Karachi deputy mayor.

Islamabad -- The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday disqualified Deputy Mayor Karachi Arshad Vohra for switching parties after being elected to his position.

The decision comes on a petition filed by Dr Farooq Sattar after Vohra, who had contested on a Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) ticket, joined rival Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP).

In a letter to the ECP, Sattar noted that Vohra had violated law and Constitution by switching political parties. He asked the commission to de-notify Vohra as Union Council member.

Since changing loyalties on October 29, the deputy mayor's security protocol and secretarial facilitation were taken away on the orders of Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar.

Vohra had become the deputy mayor on the ticket of Muttahida Qaumi Movement- Pakistan. He had been elected chairman from the Union Council 49. Later, he joined Pak Sarzameen Party, infuriating his former party, which then moved the ECP.

The ECP had reserved the decision on the petition seeking disqualification of Vohra on the last hearing of the case. The chief election commissioner, heading a three-member bench, read out the already reserved verdict today.

Vohra's counsel Syed Hafizuddin told media representatives...