President of Consumer Pakistan, Syed Muhammad Amir Rafi has said that the state-of-the-art automatic plant imported from Water Shops Welfare Germany was scrapped by administration of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) with the connivance of Sakhan Police Station without any notice and with its heavy machinery. He said there is also an order, but the XEN officer of the water board and the police, in a campaign of open bullying, reduced the entire plant to rubble.
Talking to media outside the M.D Water Board Office in Karachi on Wednesday, he said that more than a dozen people have been illegally detained and sent to jail. The owners of more than 100 water shops in Karachi, along with laborers and others, have been forced to stage a protest outside the M.D Water Board Karachi office.
Syed Muhammad Amir Rafi said that the people are living a healthy life with the water taken from us and that we are doing this water business with great diligence and honesty. Immediate legal action should be taken against the people. The protest lasted more than two hours. Crack slogans were chanted. According to the law, even when the police personnel were shown a court stay order, the police should have stopped carrying out policing, which did not happen.
President of Consumer Pakistan has demanded from M.D Water Board Mrs. Farida Saleem to arrange an alternative supply of water till the closure of the plant so that more than 100 water shops in their respective areas can get Rs. The M.D Water Board, while instructing the Water Board officials present on the spot, said that Xenith Purified Aqua Services should be provided with a huge quantity of drinking water from Water Board sources till the complete restoration of the plant.
Mrs. Farida Saleem, M.D, Water Board, took immediate notice of the incident, appeared before the protesters and strongly reacted to the illegal operation on Xenith Purified Aqua Services, saying that the police and Water Board A committee of inquiry has been formed in this regard. Strict departmental action will be taken against those responsible as soon as possible. Despite the stay order, the mobilization of the water board and the police is incomprehensible.
Expressing his surprise at the proposal, M.D Water Board Karachi said that the best tactics used by the water board and the police were being worked out on an emergency basis. Muhammad Shafiq Butt, in-charge of Consumer Pakistan Welfare Water Shops, asked Mrs. Farida Saleem, MD, Water Board, whether the constitution allows any one accused of murder to be hanged first and then the murder to be investigated.
The M.D Water Board was unresponsive to this question and expressed deep sorrow and regret over the irreparable abuse committed against the water company and said that the amount of condemnation for this incident is less than the number of people who have been investigated. They will also be guilty and they will be punished so that no other such incident can take place in the near future.
