Sindh Chief Secretary Rizwan Memon on Saturday admitted before the Supreme Court that 4.5 tons of garbage was not lifted from Karachi, informing the court that computerised mechanism had been formed to overcome this issue. Three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar was hearing a constitutional petition filed by Advocate Shahab Usto, seeking better sanitation facilities, environment and portable drinking water for the people of Sindh.
In the outset of the hearing, the CJP asked if the Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar was present in the court room on which Akhtar stood up. Justice Nisar asked him who was responsible to lift garbage from Karachi and make it clean. The Mayor replied that Sindh government did not devolve such powers to the local government.
Akhtar once again decried the shortage of resources, saying the provincial government had kept all revenue generating departments with it. He demanded that revenue generating departments should be devolved to the local governments so that they can utilize the same for the betterment. The Mayor stated there is heap of garbage in each district of the city, drains had been chocked. He said Karachi has been destroyed, hospitals are full of patients but there is no medicine for them.
The CJP said to mayor, "You were elected by getting votes, forget the government and work for the welfare of common man. I want Karachi to be cleaned within a week. Carry out cleanliness work even if you have to collect funds (Chanda)." Justice Nisar asked the Karchiites not to run appreciation campaign for him. He stated that he was just performing his duties, asking everyone to play his due role for the betterment of Karachi.
The court asked provincial chief secretary if he had any objection on interim report the judicial commission formed by it to probe into the Sindh government's alleged failure in providing basic necessities to the people. The chief secretary sought more time from the court to go through the report.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.