Pay our salaries, bills or return our powers, mayor tells CM Murad Ali Shah

The Karachi mayor launched into a tirade of criticism against the Sindh chief minister as he described it a pipe dream of the provincial government to expect that it could run away from its responsibility to pay municipal staff salaries, pensions and utility bills after “seizing the resources of the local bodies in Sindh”.

Addressing a press conference in response to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah’s statement issued on January 30, city mayor Wasim Akhtar said the provincial government had "seized a total net revenue worth Rs21 billion", including all local taxes of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). The Sindh government, he said, had released only Rs7 billion in lieu of the Octroi and Zila Tax (OZT) share.

“The chief minister should return the resources and powers of the local bodies if he wanted to get rid of the payment of expenditures incurred on different heads in the local bodies”, the mayor said.

Deputy mayor Arshad Hasan and chairmen of district municipal corporations accompanied him during the presser. The mayor Karachi said the local bodies had been “fully paralysed after the implementation of the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 which made these institutions weak and powerless”.

He said the Sindh government had taken the local resources such as conservancy charges, betterment tax, commercialisation fee, BTS Tower charges and other local taxes worth around Rs21 billion. “The government has provided only Rs7billion as Octroi Zila Tax share. A total of Rs3.33 billion was allocated for the annual development programme and only one instalment was released after seven months.”

Akhtar said the provincial government had withheld the Karachi Water & Sewerage Board, the sanitation department, the building control authority and other departments. “How could in such circumstances it was possible for the local bodies to increase their income?” he asked.

The mayor demanded of the chief minister to return the departments to the local bodies and restore the OZT with release of the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) Award “if the CM is sincere in his resolve to solve the public issues.”

Akhtar said he and his colleagues would provide full cooperation at all levels if the government positively responded to their recommendations. “The transfer of powers and resources to the local bodies would benefit not only Karachi but all local bodies in Sindh,” he added. DMC Central chairmen Rehan Hashmi, DMC East chairman Moeed Anwer and DMC Korangi chairman Nayyar Raza also spoke on the occasion.