KARACHI: Welcoming the constitution of a high-level committee by Prime Minister Imran Khan for Karachi, Mayor Wasim Akhtar has stressed the need of “emergent measures” to address issues being faced by the residents of the city.

He said that the formation of the high-level committee was a better option for long-term planning, but the city needed urgent measures for solution of its civic and municipal problems.

While talking to media representatives on Wednesday during his visit to the mausoleum of Quaid-i-Azam on his death anniversary on Wednesday, he said that everyone knew about the problems being faced by the citizens of Karachi, which badly needed resources to resolve them.

Says present LG system has totally failed; it gives no authority to elected representatives

Deputy Mayor Syed Arshad Hasan and other officials were also present.

The mayor said: “If the federal government is waiting for the next local government elections then I can say on the basis of my experience that the resources provided today would take a year’s time to be utilised. Therefore I request the prime minister to come to Karachi and himself announce it so the citizens have satisfaction that their problems [are] being addressed.”

He said that he had been seeking cooperation of the provincial and federal governments for the past six months for the solution of the city’s problems, but no one was paying attention or showing any seriousness towards the issue.

Mr Akhtar said that he approached the prime minister and briefed him on the city’s problems in three meetings after he lost hope in getting support from the provincial government.

However, he lamented, no steps were taken so far despite his appeals for immediate implementation of the PM’s announcement regarding the city’s problems.

The mayor said that the country was getting revenue from this city, therefore, some share of this should be utilised here too. “The people are waiting for decision in this connection,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said that the present local government system had totally failed as no such system could succeed if it gave no authority to elected representatives of the local governments.

“I have been demanding amendments in local government law for the past three years, but to no avail,” he said, adding that he had also sought federal government’s interference for betterment of the city as there was a provision of such interference by the federal government in the Constitution.

He said that the local governments’ leadership in the whole country should have powers so basic problems could be solved easily. “Had we got such powers or resources, we would have solved these problems instead of asking the government to help us,” the mayor added.

Published in Dawn, September 12th, 2019