KARACHI: The Jamaat-i-Islami and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan lambasted Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government on Thursday for failing to handle the situation of Karachi after the heavy monsoon downpours in the city which resulted in the ‘inundated roads, severed sewerage system and failure of power supply system’ and has tormented the citizens.

Addressing a press conference at party headquarters Idara Noor-i-Haq, JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman said: “There are 64 medium rain drains in Karachi, besides five big ones and hundreds of arteries, whereas, the last budget shows an allocation of Rs1.20 billion for cleanliness of these drains, but the rain drains are full of filth.”

He asked city administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab to explain how much funds have been utilised to clean the drains.

He demanded Barrister Wahab’s resignation and said that he had no legitimate ground to hold the office as his performance was ‘zero’, and also, ahead of second phase of local bodies election in the province, it was not in the line of conduct for a party leader to hold such office and was against the political ethics, constitution and rules and regulations as well as democratic norms and values.

MQM-P leaders also gave a strong reaction and questioned the performance of the PPP government and its contribution for urban parts of the province where the situation had worsened during the past 14 years.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s temporary headquarters, MQM-P leader Javed Hanif said that the situation of the city after the rain was the chargesheet against the 14-year-old rule of PPP government in Sindh. He mentioned that the roads have been inundated, sewerage system has been severed and power supply system has failed after the first spell of monsoon rains.

He said that MQM-P joined the Shahbaz government for the development of Karachi and rights of urban Sindh.

“For that, we have signed agreements with both the parties [PPP and MQM-P]. But it’s so unfortunate that the terms agreed in both the deals are not being followed or implemented. We all know that the both – infrastructure and economy of Karachi – are on the verge of total collapse.”

They wondered over the “approach of the national leaders” who never gave priority to Karachi and its people despite the fact that the city was serving as the business capital of the country, contributing more than 70 per cent of the national revenue.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2022