KARACHI: The City Council on Monday echoed with strong protest over prolonged loadshedding and acute shortage of water in the metropolis as the local government representatives unanimously demanded stern action against the power and water utilities for making the life of citizens miserable.

Mayor Wasim Akhtar, who presided over the general meeting of the council of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in the KMC building’s council hall, said water shortages and power outages were the biggest issues of the people, particularly with Ramazan being around the corner, and they needed to be resolved on a priority basis.

He demanded that the utility service providers refrain from loadshedding and short supply of water to citizens during the fasting month. “The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board should depute such staff [at] its installations which could perform its duty honestly to save the people from constant agony”.

The council, which approved 13 resolutions, two of them unanimously and the rest with majority vote, expressed its concern over the persistent power shortage in the city in hot weather and demanded that action be taken against K-Electric and Rs200 billion be returned to its customers. They also demanded that the electricity provider be given in government control again.

Union council chairmen from the six districts of Karachi told the house that there had been an acute shortage of water in their areas.

The council asked the chief justice of Pakistan and the chief election commissioner of Sindh that development funds be spent through elected chairmen of union councils instead of their release to the community development programme and the deputy commissioners.

The council also asked the federal and Sindh governments to stop the uplift schemes and take up these projects after the general election so that transparency in development works could be ensured.

Sharif statement condemned

The council also condemned the recent statement of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif which, the members said, was based on anti-state thinking. They demanded that the president of Pakistan, the chief justice of Pakistan and the chief of the army staff take strict notice of this statement and initiate trial against him for treason.

The council members condemned the alleged ill-treatment of media representatives by the Karachi commissioner office and demanded that media persons be given respect while they were on duty.

Through other resolutions the council also approved the contract for slaughtering in North Karachi Slaughterhouse for 2017-18 and an increase in the rate of entry fee at the Karachi Zoo, Landhi-Korangi Zoo and Safari Park.

Council members expressed their views on various resolutions adopted by the council and gave their suggestions and opinions regarding various issues pertaining to the KMC and the city in order to bring about improvement in matters related to different departments.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2018