KARACHI, Nov 10: City Nazim Niamatullah Khan has declared in unequivocal terms that no administrator will be appointed in place of nazims the prior to the upcoming local bodies elections , arguing that there is no such provision in the law.
He was commenting on the recent statements of Sindh governor and chief minister that in order to ensure transparency in the election process nazims would be replaced with administrators before the polls.
Mr Khan categorically stated that the present set-up at all the three tiers of the new local government system i.e. union council, town administration and city district government, would remain unchanged till the completion of the election process.
The nazim was speaking at a largely attended Iftar party hosted by him at Karachi Press Club on Wednesday. Naib City Nazim Tariq Hassan and senior officials of the city government were also present on the occasion.
Referring to his telephonic conversation on Wednesday with the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) Chairman, Mr Daniyal Aziz, Mr Niamatullah Khan said that Mr Aziz had told him in clear terms that there was no such move on the cards.
Describing the desire of certain quarters to bring in administrators to conduct the polls as 'wishful thinking', the city nazim said that as a matter of fact, those at the helm of the affairs in local government would remain there not only till the end of the voting, but also after the elections because they would sure be retaining their seats for demonstrating excellent performance and rendering selfless service to the people of Karachi.
"We will sweep the next local bodies polls because we have done a lot for Karachi and this has not only been lauded by the whole of Pakistan but also acknowledged by the national media.
"The development work carried out over the past three years in every nook and corner of the city has no match in the history of the metropolis. Even 20 per cent of the development work had never been undertaken over a period of 15 years before the present city government took the charge," he said.
Referring to the city government's performance, he made mention of the construction of bridges and flyovers, carpeting and repair of all important and major thoroughfares, setting up of model parks, improvement and beautification of all major roundabouts and traffic intersections, and other development work in all 18 towns of the city.
Regarding the city's transport problem, he pointed out that the city government under its Urban Transport Scheme had already introduced about 200 new jumbo-sized and comfortable buses and intended to double the number by next month.
Elaborating, he said that the city government had already embarked upon an ambitious plan of improving the city's decades-old infrastructure by laying a network of roads, bridges, flyovers and pedestrian bridges.
Later, talking to newsmen the city nazim said: "The issue of price hike is not confined to Ramazan only and should not be seen as such. As a matter of fact, prices needed to be monitored on a permanent basis whole the year. For the purpose, the officials assigned the task of controlling prices must have magisterial powers so that they could establish writ of law and take action against those responsible for unnecessary hike in prices, especially of essential commodities."