Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has alleged that the Election Commission of Pakistan is hands in gloves with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh to oppose the local government setup in Karachi.Addressing an event, he said the continuous delay in the local polls showed that the ECP and the PPP government were united against Karachi and Karachiites and to keep the residents deprived of their due rights.
Rehman further alleged that the PPP government was plundering billions of rupees in the name of carpeting of roads, warning that “the substandard work” would not be able to survived even the first spell of rains.This would pave the way for another opportunity for corruption in the name of allocations of heavy amounts for repairs, he added.
The JI leader said the local government setup was supposed to look after such tasks and development works, but the PPP regime was adamant about keeping the city deprived of local governments in order to continue plundering resources and fulfil its unlimited greed.Had an honest and capable city government been in place, nobody would have plundered the resources of the megalopolis, he said.The JI leader said that the PPP regime in Sindh had refused to provide policemen for deployment during the local government elections but it had sent 6,000 police personnel to Islamabad to handle a protest.
He said Karachi was the largest city in the country, but no political party was ready to own it, except for the JI.He added that Karachi contributes 67 percent in revenue generation to the national exchequer. Last year, the city posted a 42 percent increase in tax collection, but the problems surrounding the city remained the same, he deplored.