‘Mayor should demand Rs162bn for city before he quits coalition’

Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani told The News on Sunday that if Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar wishes to part ways with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), he should demand Rs162 billion that were pledged for the development of Karachi by the party’s federal government.

Ghani said this after he was asked to comment on the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan’s mayor announcing that his party would quit the coalition with the PTI’s government. The minister said that there was some specific reason for which Federal Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda had come to the city.

The information minister said Akhtar should part ways with the Centre over not providing 1,200 cusecs of additional water to Karachi and funds to complete the K-IV bulk water supply project. “If he parts ways with the PTI, it will prove that he has been working for Karachi.”

After he was asked to comment on the city’s condition of being turned into a huge garbage den, Ghani said that it was only because of Federal Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Haider Zaidi.

The provincial minister said Zaidi launched a campaign to clean up Karachi, but it resulted in the spreading of all the trash to the end of nullahs, on the roads and in parks and playgrounds.

He also said he was present in the meeting with Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah in which all the district municipal corporation chairmen complained about garbage spread on the roads and in the streets.

Ghani said that all the nullahs have been choked because of garbage and that the mayor keeps saying the sewerage system of the city has collapsed. He said Akhtar asks for power and funds, but he has all the powers enshrined in the Sindh Local Government Act of 2013.

Kashmir cause

Ghani said in a statement that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s best wishes on Indian PM Narendra Modi’s election win had hurt the sentiments of Kashmiris. He said Khan, who had been desperate to keep in touch with Modi in the past, was unable to fight the case of Kashmiris in the manner that the present circumstances warrant.

Ghani said that none of Pakistan’s friends, including Islamic countries, had shown us any support. He said Khan had failed to rise to the occasion and demonstrate the kind of leadership expected by Pakistanis and Kashmiris.

The information minister said that the resolution of the Kashmir dispute during the federal government of the PTI seemed to be a Sisyphean task.