Hyderabad district be declared calamity-hit, demands MQM-P

HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) Sindh Assembly members from Hyderabad on Saturday demanded that the district be declared calamity-hit due to the devastation brought by recent rains.

They made the demand while speaking to journalists at the Hyderabad Press Club.

MPA Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani said the recent monsoon spell had revealed the disman performance of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) and district administration. He alleged that the HMC and district administration made no preparations for the rain whatsoever.

The MQM-P leader said no generators were repaired nor were nullahs cleaned to before the rain. He added that employees of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) had not been paid salaries so it should not be expected from them to do cleaning work at nullahs.

He was of the view that the local government in Hyderabad conveniently witnessed the city drowning in the rainwater. Even Qasimabad, the area where the Hyderabad mayor belonged to, was submerged in rainwater, Qaimkhani lamented.

He said all those running the local government in Hyderabad were incompetent.

Reacting to the mayor’s claim that sacks had been put in the drains and sewers to clog them, the MQM-P MPA said such claims were pure nonsense and the mayor was only trying to cover his incompetence.

He said that even the Hyderabad district officials of the PPP had to speak against the performance of the mayor and ministers who said they were not performing in accordance with the policy of their party.

He said people of Hyderabad were in distress after the rains and their properties had been damaged due to which the district should be declared calamity-hit.

MPA Nasir Qureshi said the MQM-P was being told that sacks had been put in the drains.

He remarked that the drains in question could not be choked by putting sacks in them.

He said the PPP had made tall claims but its actual performance was now evident from the Hyderabad city filled with garbage and mud. He said that the rainwater drains in the inner parts of the city were not cleaned.

He also lamented that the district administration and city government never invited representatives of the MQM-P, which had won the general elections from Hyderabad with a clear majority, to their meetings.

Qureshi said that had the Hyderabad commissioner, deputy commissioner and mayor taken the MQM-P on board regarding rain preparations, the MQM-P would have given them good advice.

The MQM-P also criticised the Sindh chief minister saying that he ignored Hyderabad while he visited other districts during the rain emergency.

MPA Rashid Khan appealed to Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to provide relief to the citizens Hyderabad.

He said there were two provincial ministers from Hyderabad in the Sindh cabinet, but they were not seen during the rain emergency.

The Sindh chief minister and his government had ignored Hyderabad, he remarked, adding that the MQM-P had the mandate from the people of Hyderabad and it would not allow injustice to the people of the city.