MQM to move courts for powers of mayor

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) will move to court to get powers for the local bodies to enable them to deliver to resolve the issues of people because the government has failed to implement Article 140 of the Constitution.

Addressing a crowded press conference at the newly-established head office at Bahadurabad on Tuesday, Dr Farooq Sattar cautioned the Sindh government to not provoke them [MQM-P] for taking any other step and positively give control of all the local departments to the Mayor of Karachi, with special reference to the Water and Sewerage Board and the Solid Waste Management Board.

 Sattar held the government responsible for breaching the Constitution of Pakistan. “Although, the local government elections were held on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan but powers were not transferred to the local bodies,” he claimed. “Resultantly, the institutions under local bodies were faced with hardships while delivering services to people.”

Sattar said: “All eyes of the people are on their elected representatives; and unfortunately, the situation of the city is worsening day by day, which has highly disappointed the people. We tried our best to persuade the Sindh government to empower the institution, but it seems difficult to persuade them.”

Further adding to his point, Sattar remarked: “Left with no option, we have finally decided to move to the court to get powers for the Mayor as enshrined in the Constitution; and in a day or two we would be submitting our petition in the apex court.”

On the Panama verdict by the apex court and constitution of Joint Investigation Team, he said: “Keeping in view the opinion of the opposition parties, we also understand that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should adopt a way that would be graceful and JIT should be allowed to work on actual facts without any influence and hurdles.”

Sattar further suggested: “In order to make JIT impartial, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif should take some decision.”

He also demanded that the Supreme Court should also form a JIT on 180 cases of the NAB. He said, “Major political parties were influencing the NAB to not open cases and bring them to logical end.”

Sattar condemned the attack on the Rangers in the Urdu Bazaar and appreciated the part played by the Rangers. Expressing his concern, he asked that presence of terrorists’ network in congested localities should be traced out and there was a dire need of ‘mohallah chowkidari system’ to investigate the cases effectively.