KARACHI, March 18: The adviser to chief minister for local government, Wasim Akhtar, has accused the city government of patronizing Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal by allowing them to use billboards for its Sunday’s ‘million march’. Describing billboards a government/public property, the adviser told a news conference on Friday that nobody had the right to use them (billboards) neither against the government nor for the purpose of holding any agitation because such ‘uncalled for’ activities often results in damages to public and private properties and disruptions to peace.
He said that since use of hoardings for political purpose amounted to violation of the city government’s own advertisement by-laws, he had directed the town nazims and town municipal officers to immediately remove all those banners and billboards which were being used for the MMA’s politics of agitation from their respective jurisdictions.
Besides, he said, the Sindh Local Government Commission has also been asked to inquire in the matter so that action could be taken against those found guilty of allowing the MMA to use hoardings for its anti-government rallies.
“Isn’t it an act of shame that the city government’s local taxes department which has collected only Rs27 million so far under the head of advertising taxes against its target of one billion rupees, has allowed the MMA to use hoardings against the government free of cost,” he remarked.
Accusing the city nazim of becoming party to the MMA’s campaign against President Musharraf’s policies, Mr Wasim said that it was beyond one’s comprehension that on one hand he (Nazim) took the credit of being appreciated by the president for the development works and on the other he was working as a tool of the MMA which had planned a rally against the president’s policies.
He said that if the MMA/opposition was not happy with President Musharraf’s policies they should wait till the next general elections scheduled to be held in 2007. Terming the MMA’s planned rally ‘a part of its campaign for the forthcoming local bodies elections’, he said that the MMA had decided to launch its election campaign even before the announcement of local bodies’ elections schedule in the name of a ‘million march’.
He said that it was amazing to note that the MMA had planned its rally to protest against price hike and obscenity despite knowing that both the functions of controlling prices and curbing the trend of obscenity fell under the ambit of the city government. “Had the MMA been sincere in its drive against increasing prices and obscenity it would have asked the nazim to control prices and remove all those hoardings which were promoting obscenity, instead of vitiating the city’s peaceful atmosphere through its politics of agitation,” he added.
When a newsman asked whether the government would arrest the nazims who would participate in the ‘million march’, he replied that nazims were part of the government and “whosoever would violate the law of the land would be dealt with accordingly.”
Asked about justification behind the Sindh information department’s act of sponsoring advertisements in newspapers on the occasion of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Foundation Day, the adviser said that he would like to clarify that there would be no financial burden on the government exchequer because of those advertisements.
LB POLLS: The adviser said that schedule for the next local bodies elections would be announced in April and a decision of appointing administrators in place of nazims would also be taken next month.
At the outset, he lauded President Musharraf’s policies and said that it was during his tenure that the country’s economy had improved, pace of industrialization had accelerated, a number of development projects had been undertaken and the prolonged ban on government jobs had been lifted.
