KARACHI: Caretaker Local Government Minister Mubin Jumani on Tuesday said that the city had been turned into a jungle of concrete and directed the chief of the Sindh Building Control Authority to independently initiate immediate action against all ‘systems’ including ‘illegal construction system’.

During his maiden meeting with the heads of different civic agencies and utilities, he said he had been hearing that there was a ‘system’— a jargon used for a mechanism or interconnecting network of corruption in the province— in the development authorities under the administrative control of the local government department. “It should be ended in any case,” he said.

The interim LG minister said that he was a builder himself by profession and lived in the city. “I know everything very well and know who is behind all this and which departments’ officers are involved in the racket,” he told the meeting.

However, he told the officers that what had happened in the past should be made a thing of past. “You should consider yourselves safe in any case, because the officer who works in the right direction will have my support,” he said but added that if any officer was found involved in wrongdoings, he would himself take action against him.

The local government secretary, local government board secretary, chiefs of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC), Karachi Develop­ment Authority, Malir Development Authority, Sehwan Development Autho­rity, Sindh Building Control Authority and Sindh Solid Waste Manage­ment Board and other senior officers attended the meeting.

The officers of the departments managed by the local government department gave a detailed briefing to the caretaker provincial minister regarding their respective departments.

Mr Jumani said that now the officers of the department should offer themselves to serve the public without any fear. “All the officers have to leave behind whatever happened in the past and follow the law only,” he said.

He asked the chief executive officer of the KWSC to immediately provide him the list of illegal hydrants. “Illegal hydrants is a big mafia and the details of its backers should be provided,” he said.

Published in Dawn, August 23th, 2023