KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has given a 7-day deadline to the government to declare a fresh date for local bodies’ elections in the megacity, failing to which, he warned, the party would go for all-out protests.
Addressing a press conference, he said that the JI would hold protest demonstrations and sit-ins across the country whereas the options of a sit-in outside the Sindh Assembly building and call for strikes were also open.
He demanded of the chief election commissioner to exercise his constitutional right in order to discharge his duties or tender his resignation.
He further said that the chief election commissioner needs to summon the army, Rangers and FC with immediate effect under the Article 220 of the constitution to hold elections in the megacity, instead of wasting the time by writing letters to the Sindh government and the provincial election commission.
He said the conduct of the PPP government in Sindh and the Election Commission of Pakistan shows that both are hands in gloves for delaying the local government elections. Unfortunately, he alleged, all the so-called political parties have hatched a conspiracy against the local bodies’ setup for their political and monetary gains.
Referring to an earlier statement by PPP supremo Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, he said that the PPP chairman would not be able to deploy police personnel in Nazimabad area of Karachi for local government polls but the same chairman ordered to send 6,000 policemen to Islamabad to handle the march by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
He further said that the PPP government in Sindh has done nothing for the megacity during the past 15 years except fanning ethnic divide, language-based hatred and fake appointments.
He asked Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP leadership how many mega projects had been completed in Karachi during the past one and half decades.
The JI leader said that the Orange Line project consumed hefty funds but was unable to serve significantly. He said the Green Line project was not yet completed as practically work on its second phase from Numaish Chowrangi to Tower is yet to start. In this backdrop, the government has initiated the Red Line project on the University Road whereas the fate of the Green Line was in the limbo, he said.
The same goes for the Red Busses Project as the government spent tens of millions of rupees for advertisement campaign in connection with the project but the contribution of this project was minimal, he claimed. He said that millions of commuters in Karachi have no other options but to travel in old busses and rickshaws.
Engr Naeemur Rehman also lambasted the PPP government in Sindh for substandard patchwork of roads in Karachi. He said news and videos of the substandard work are all over the social media platforms but the government has maintained a mum over the issue, jeopardizing billions of rupees paid by the taxpayers.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022