"Status quo" apparently continues to prevail about lifting of garbage from streets and roads of metropolis after Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) Chief Syed Mustafa Kamal stood apart due to breakdown of arrangement to clean the city. Merely hours after assigning the cleanness responsibility to Mustafa Kamal, former City Nazim and political rival of Wasim Akhtar, Mayor Karachi in a shocking move withdrew the notification, which appointed Kamal as Project Director Garbage (PDG).
Last night move of Mayor Karachi took everyone with surprise and rekindled the hopes of some progress for a clean Karachi, but the developments unfolded on Tuesday vanished all the "goodwill" which emerged a day earlier due to his act. Mustafa who was hailed for his proactive approach to run the civic matters of densely-populated city is a hard critic of Wasim Akhtar, belonging to Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P). MQM-P and PSP are contenders in the politics of Karachi and are staunch rivals to each other, banking upon the Urdu-Speaking votes of the city.
Kamal welcomed the gestures shown by Wasim Akhtar to appoint him as "Project Director Garbage" and even acknowledged Mayor Karachi "his boss". As the Tuesday dawned on the horizon of city, all the "good will" gestures were seen evaporating in the air and the sudden move of Mayor Karachi to de-notify Kamal put the things where these were a day earlier.
"I had appointed him [Mustafa Kamal] with good intention of resolving the issues f city, forgetting the allegations on me and my family but his action showed that instead of serving the citizens he begun with political point scoring. Waseem said he suspended Kamal from the responsibility for his.
Waseem acknowledged that Karachiites are facing enormous civic issues, with garbage heaps laid in every street and localities, and the city infrastructure has been devastated. Solid waste management board spent Rs 24 billion in four years but it yield no results. He claimed that 1200 tons of garbage lifted and removed from beneath of the Water Pump Flyover in district central.
Districts have no resources. We helped them and provided with machinery and vehicles for this purpose after which more than 80 percent of district central has now cleaned up. Fumigation drive would start again once it completed. "Garbage lifting was not the responsibility of the KMC," the mayor said. He said, "Due to shortage of resources, I have asked the federal and Sindh governments for help and accepted the offer for cooperation from Bahria Town and all other political parties."