Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Sunday accused "so-called friends of Karachi" of trying to disrupt his ongoing 'Clean My Karachi' drive by choking sewer lines, a statement released by the chief minister's office said.

Shah made the remarks while he toured the city to inspect progress of the ongoing cleanliness campaign, that was initiated by the provincial government a day before and will last a month.

Shah said that the second day of the drive had started with the removal of heavy stones and boulders in order to unblock a 24 dia sewer line in the city's Malir 15 area and alleged that the lines were blocked on purpose in order to disrupt the cleaning drive. The chief minister added that the choked lines could have caused sewage water to spill over in Malir and Quaidabad areas as well as Shahrah-e-Faisal.

"These people are enemies of Karachi and Karachiites, therefore they are playing with them," Shah was quoted as saying by the press release.

He was accompanied on his tour by his cabinet members, including Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani, Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah, Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Information Murtaza Wahab and Commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahlwani among others.

The statement further said that about 7,152 tonnes of garbage had been lifted on the first day of the drive.

Over 600 dumper trucks, shovel machines and tractors and 4,000 workers will be be employed for the campaign that started yesterday.