KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan Ameer Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has said that corruption and mismanagement in Sindh have been institutionalised in the name of governance, with responsibility also lying on those who facilitated such rulers through electoral manipulation.
He made these remarks while addressing at a press conference at Idara Noor-e-Haq, JI Karachi’s headquarters, on Friday.
Hafiz Naeemur Rehman held both the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) responsible for Karachi’s problems, noting that both parties were also part of the federal government. He criticised delays in major development projects, saying that the K-IV water supply scheme remains incomplete after two decades, the Green Line bus project is still not fully operational, and the Red Line project has created hardships for citizens.
He said that the Sindh government had not issued the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) Award for over 15 years and during this period withheld Rs 3,360 billion meant for Karachi. He alleged that the federal government was equally complicit in this. He further described the PPP as being dominated by one family and feudal elites, adding that Karachi’s mayor Murtaza Wahab represented landlords rather than the city’s citizens.
Referring to the K-IV project, he said Rs 40 billion were required but only Rs3 billion were released. He claimed that the city’s water system had collapsed, allowing tanker mafias to exploit citizens who were forced to buy water at high rates.
On the broader national situation, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that while floods are natural disasters, negligence by the authorities had worsened their impact. He urged that flood-hit areas be declared calamity-stricken and criticised wasteful expenditure on projects such as Diamer-Bhasha Dam while other non-controversial dams including Chiniot, Rakhuri, Skardu, and Swan remained incomplete. He also dismissed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s claims of large-scale tree plantation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, saying deforestation had increased instead.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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