KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Sunday staged a protest rally outside the Karachi Press Club against acute water shortages in the metropolis.

The participants in the rally were holding placards and banners. They raised slogans against the Sindh government for “failing to deliver despite being in power since 2008”.

The PTI leaders, including Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Firdaus Shamim Naqvi, PTI Parliamentary leader Haleem Adil Shaikh, PTI MNAs Aftab Jahangir, Saifur Rehman, MPAs Jamal Siddiqui, Shabi Qureshi, Saeed Afridi, Raja Azhar, Malik Shahzad Awan and others spoke to the protesters.

The speakers held the provincial government responsible for the miseries being suffered by Karachiites and said that despite having been in power for the past 11 years the rulers had failed to add even a single drop of water to the supply for Karachi.

The rulers could not escape from accountability, they added.

“For suspension of gas supply, we are certainly accountable,” Mr Naqvi admitted. “We believe in merit and would follow merit. But why, I like to ask, the PPP is afraid of making a public accounts committee in Sindh Assembly.”

He alleged that PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari was “the king of corruption.” He asked where the rulers in Sindh had spent the budget for the past 11 years as half of the city was without drinking water and the other half was inundated with sewage and asked the government to name one city or a village where potable water was available to its population .

Mr Naqvi said that no one would be allowed to go scot free and would be made accountable for misdeeds.

Haleem Adil Sheikh said that the government of Imran Khan would not let go of any leader involved in corruption, including the “thieves of sugar”. He said the corruption mafia would be made accountable for every penny of the looted money as an inquiry into corruption of Rs300 billion had already been started.

Mr Adil criticised the chief minister of Sindh for “not giving any financial assistance to the poor people of Thar”.

He said the Sindh government had left, particularly his constituency PS-99, without drinking water, but with plenty of overflowing sewage from gutters.

He said if water shortage was not taken care of, the destination of the next protest would be Chief Minister House.

Malik Shahzad Aawn said that Baldia Town was being treated as stepchild and warned that if water crisis was not resolved, people would stage a sit-in in front of Chief Minister House.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2018