KARACHI: Saifuddin Advocate, the leader of the opposition in city council, has lambasted the Pakistan People Party’s mayor in Karachi over his alleged failures and dubbed him what he called the worst mayor in this history of the megacity.
The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader expressed these views while addressing a press conference held at the KMC building, here on Friday. He was flanked by Mubashir Hassan Zai, the parliamentary lead of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the council, JI’s Qazi Saddaruddin and Jawad Shoaib among others.
Saifuddin Advocate chaired a meeting of the opposition representatives before the media briefing to assess the one year progress of the mayor.
He told the media that defying all traditions and customs, the opposition parties were totally neglected in compilation of the budget. He added that the mayor just shared a few statistics with him at the eleventh hour, instead of taking the suggestions by all parliamentary leaders into account.
Talking about the one-year performance, he said that Mayor Wahab announced to provide 75 sewage covers to each UC and created a hype around it but he even failed to keep his words as only 15 covers were provided to each UC instead of 75.
He added that the mayor hasn’t provided any development funds to union councils from the kitty of the KMC. He added that the Karachi generates the larger most chunk of tax but the PPP government never owns it. He further said that the hospitals, parks, play grounds and libraries, everything was in shambles. The sewerage system has also failed, whereas the majority of Karachiites have no other option but to purchase water.
On the occasion, he demanded devolution of the Karachi Water Board to town and UC level. He also demanded for devolution of the solid waste management board to town level.
The JI leader also demanded of the authorities for forensic audit of Competitive and Livable City of Karachi (CLICK), alleging that corruption of unimaginable magnitude will be unearthed as a result of the audit. He said that Rs60 billion to Rs70 billion had been credited to the CLICK.
He demanded inclusion of stakeholders committee in the water board management, alleging that the local bodies department became a hub of corruption.
He also demanded the proceedings of motor vehicle tax be given to Karachi and said that no new tax should be imposed on Karachiites.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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