KARACHI: The Jamaat-e-Islami staged sit-ins at over 50 spots in the city on Saturday for the rights of Karachi, asking the Sindh government to hold local bodies polls immediately.
Chief of Karachi JI, Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman, spoke at the sit-ins at different places including Qayyumabad, Kala Pul, Regal Chowk and Noorani Kabab House and urged the Sindh government to annul the local bodies act and announce holding of local body polls forthwith.
The sit-ins are aimed at struggling for rights of Karachi including a fresh population census, abolishment of quota system in government’s jobs, setting up of an autonomous city government, Karachi Electric’s (KE) control and its forensic audit.
Hafiz Naeem said that the government should ensure recovery of billions of rupees of consumers from the KE.
He also asked the government to direct the Sui Southern Gas Company to ensure smooth supply of the utility to the industrial, commercial and domestic users.
He said that the government should also introduce a transportation plan without any delay with at least 1,000 buses to help ease commuting for the people.
He asked the government to chalk out a concerted plan for collection of waste through solid waste management, streamlining sewerage system, provision of water, better health and public education facility and to also ensure sports facility for youth in the city.
Hafiz Naeem alleged that the Pakistan People’s Party and the Muttahida Quami Movement had ruined the city’s infrastructure and failed to initiate work on Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme (K-IV) project.
“Today people are facing scarcity of potable water. They are forced to travel on chingchi rickshaw and decades-old public transport and even Karachi Circular Railway facility cannot be revamped and in the name of this, the railway minister announced a local train service to hoodwink the people of Karachi,” he said.
Even Bus Rapid Transit System Green Line project was in the doldrums for long.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government along with the PPP and the MQM brought indefinite extension to the quota system on government jobs at the cost of youth rights of employment, he said.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government showed half of the city’s population deliberately in the national census, he added.
“It was aimed to deprive people of Karachi of their legal rights and privileges besides usurping their resources by halving population,” Hafiz Naeem said.
He said that the people were worried over the education system as there exists no plan to entertain students at the government academic institutions. Aspirants seeking admissions to the medical and dental colleges were being kept away from their rights in the name of Pakistan Testing System plan, he added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021