KARACHI, Feb 11: The Leader of the Opposition in the City Council, Saeed Ghani, and members of the Awam Dost group have condemned the levying of a huge infrastructure tax on the citizens of Karachi.

They have demanded that the provincial government immediately stop the implementation of the tax.

“The imposition of such taxes is an ‘anti-people’ step and there is a need to free the people of anguish,” the group said.

In a joint statement, Mr Ghani, Juman Darwan, Anwer Baloch, Yousuf Naz, Mir Ismail Brohi, Abdul Majeed Baloch, Shamim Mumtaz, Mehrunnisa Baloch and others said on Wednesday that the impression created by the city government that all members of the city councils were in the favour of the imposition of the tax in question was absolutely incorrect.

“The fact is that the members of the opposition groups in the Council had not only strongly opposed the proposal pertaining to the new tax, but also questioned the reasons cited behind the introduction of the tax. The treasury failed to provide any satisfactory answers in the house, and consequently we had protested over the issue,” they added.

They said the idea of the tax should have been dropped after the CDGK’s agreement with a Chinese firm regarding solid waste management was scrapped.