Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) emir Monem Zafar has said that no one will be allowed to capture Karachi’s resources as they belong to Karachiites only.
Addressing a media in a ceremony, he shared the JI’s contribution for the progress and development of the nine towns run by the party in Karachi.
He said that during the first 10 months of the local government, the JI restored over 100 parks in nine towns, besides installing 40,000 street lights, upgrading 31 public sector schools, covering 4,600 sewerage holes, clearing 72,500 feet sewerage lines, providing water supply to 1,200 households, and reconstructing 21,720,000 square feet of roads.
He said that the JI Pakistan emir had announced that the party would serve Karachi and Karachiites even beyond its mandate. He said that the JI has been walking the talk and more than Rs270 million have been spent to uplift the water supply and sewerage system in the nine towns of the JI despite the fact that it was a provincial subject.
The JI leader further said that Karachi keeps the country running, it posts 54 percent of the country’s export, generates 60 percent revenue for the centre, 96 percent for the province, whereas the population of the mega city was more than a large number of countries in the world.
Against this backdrop, he said, the Pakistan Peoples Party has been betraying Karachi, Karachiites and the Constitution bestowed by its own founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
The 1973 Constitutions provides firm support to the local government and ensures devolution of powers to the local governments. However, he maintained, the PPP has been deviating from the very idea and strongly following the power centric politics in order to plunder the resources of the mega city.
He said that the PPP doesn’t want to deliver in Karachi. The PPP regime has been ruling over the province for the past 1.6 decades but it has done nothing good for Karachi.
He added that construction and development is globally considered a local bodies subject but the PPP constituted an authority; CLICK, for construction of infrastructure and mega projects. He added that the CLICK was supposed to resolve the issue of water supply and sewerage during 2019 to 2024 but it failed miserably.
The roads constructed by CLICK couldn’t survive even a single spell of rain and the enquiry report sought by the mayor and other authorities has
already hit a snag, he said.
Monem Zafar said that the PPP couldn’t complete the K4 water supply project during its long reign. The project has been in limbo for the past 19 years and its capacity has already been curtailed to one third, he said.
He further said that both the chief minister and the mayor had expressed their helplessness when it comes to the development of
infrastructure in Karachi.
He held the corrupt system of governance responsible for the prevailing situation. He said that “the system” has been increasing unrest in the society.