Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Waseem Akhtar has lashed out at the Sindh government for inadequate arrangements as the monsoon rains inundated several parts of the metropolis. Addressing a press conference, former mayor Karachi said the government officials have gone to interior Sindh for celebrating Eidul Azha with families. This is what happens when people are hired on fake domiciles and locals are denied jobs, he added.
Where are the officials of Sindh Waste Management Board (SWMB)? Why didn’t the nullahs [of Karachi] were not cleaned a month earlier, he asked.
Akhtar asked, “Why didn’t the Sindh government plan prior to Eidul Azha for waste management and monsoon rains?” He questioned, “Where is Pakistan Disaster Management Authority (PDMA)?” adding that Karachi is being run through deputy commissioners.
He added that Karachi is being run through deputy commissioners and complained that the Sindh government did not devolve powers to local bodies and said the situation would be different if it had been done.
He urged the Sindh government to follow the orders of the Supreme Court regarding the local government system in Karachi. He decried nothing was done for the metropolis despite record tax collection, adding that the people lost lives and their properties were damaged. Akhtar said that the megacity has been devastated and Sindh government officials just made cosmetic visits to Shahra-e-Faisal and Star Gate after rains.
Akhtar said the people of Karachi are asking why their tax money is not spent on them, adding that the city already did not have an
infrastructure and what was left was destroyed in recent rains.
He said the Sindh government receives a huge sum of Rs1,200 billion every year for bettering Karachi and asked, “Where does it go?” He urged Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to take notice of the incompetence of the provincial government.
