Govt to conduct probe to ascertain reasons behind downfall of Karachi’s civic agencies

Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said that the provincial government will definitely conduct a probe to ascertain why the civic agencies of Karachi, which had been earning millions of rupees before 2009, have now been pushed to the verge of complete destruction.He stated this while talking to journalists after he along with Information Minister Saeed Ghani inaugurated the annual Urs of Abdullah Shah Ghazi here on Thursday. The Sindh government to date had been continuously providing financial assistance to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and other civic agencies of the city to the tune of billions of rupees, he claimed.Shah said the KMC, the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board, the Karachi Development Authority, the Master Plan Department and other civic agencies of the city had been pushed to the verge of utter collapse as their fiscal resources had been siphoned off to London in the previous regimes. “We do consider that Mustafa Kamal and Wasim Akhtar cannot be blamed much for this situation as both had been under intense pressure as their beloved leader of that time had his own ambitions,” he said.He said that the looting of resources of the civic agencies of the city, which had been committed in the past regimes, had now come to the fore as allegations were being traded regarding de-silting of storm water drains and other civic issues.Also speaking on the occasion, Information Minister Saeed Ghani said that the appeal of Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar to the people of the city not to pay taxes to the Sindh government showed that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had emerged as the “B-team” of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.He said Prime Minister Imran Khan before the last general elections used to appeal to the masses to stop paying taxes to the government, and later when he came to power he increased the sufferings of the masses by increasing taxes.Regarding the demand of former city Nazim Mustafa Kamal that the name of the incumbent mayor, Wasim Akhtar, should be placed on the Exit Control List, Shah said that as a matter of principle this demand was unjust as nobody should be placed on the ECL against whom the allegation of committing a crime had not been proved.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2ZbCwQ2