Water supply lines to Karachi leaked thrice in 15 days, evident on incapability of PPP, says Monem Zafar .
KARACHI - Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi Ameer Monem Zafar has lambasted the Pakistan People Party government in Sindh over acute water crises in the mega city and announced to hold big protest demonstrations at 15 major spots across the mega city on Saturday December 21.
The JI Karachi leader was addressing a press conference held at Idara Noor-e-Haq — the JI Karachi headquarters, here on Friday. He was flanked by JI leaders, including Saifuddin Advocate, Qazi Sadaruddin, Zahid Askari and Najeeb Ayubi. Representatives from the victims of cooperative housing societies also joined the JI leader at the press conference.
Speaking on the occasion, he highlighted that during the past five months, Karachi has contributed the national exchequer by Rs1110 billion, marking a 20 percent uptick as compared to the past year. The mega city submits 42 percent of total tax to the national exchequer, it generates 54 percent of the total export, 67pc revenue to the center, 96pc revenue for the province, whereas the life in Karachi has become miserable and it is kept deprived of the most basic necessity; water.
He held the Pakistan People Party (PPP) responsible for the situation as it has been ruling over the province for the past 16 years.
In the past 15 days, main supply lines to Karachi have leaked thrice and it is evident on the incapability and poor performance of the PPP government, he said. He further said that the PPP government failed to include even a single drop of water in the quota for Karachi. The K4 project, initiated by late Nematullah Khan, meant for 650 million gallon water per day was reduced to just 260 mgwd due to incompetence of the PPP regime, he added.
Talking about the water tanker mafia in Karachi, he said that the water corporation in Karachi in a shameless manner, proudly announced that it had earned Rs1.6 billion, majorly through water tanker mafia. He further said that the water tanker available for Rs2000 has now made available for Rs7,000 and the tanker that was available against Rs4000 has now increased to Rs12000.
On the occasion, he demanded the Sindh chief minister to increase the water quota for Karachi by at least one percent in order to reduce the dependency on water tankers. He further said that unfortunately the water corporation, headed by Mayor Murtaza Wahab, has done nothing to address the issue of rusty and redundant pipelines. He also highlighted that the theft of water from Hub Dam with the help of tanker mafia and illegal hydrants network. He also linked the horrible figures of deaths in road accidents with water tankers and held water tankers, dumpers and trailers responsible for at least 150 killings, out of the total 750 deaths in road traffic accidents. He demanded the government to devise a timeframe for them ensure that the tankers are following the timeframe.
Talking about the burden on Karachiites, he said that the mayor proudly flaunts Rs500 million cheque of MUCT charges but keeps mum about the Rs77 billion generated in Karachi only under the motor vehicle tax.
Cooperative Housing Society scam
On the occasion, the JI leader also highlighted the issue of scams in cooperative housing societies and said that a mafia was ruling over the city under the shelter, support and guardianship of the government. As a result, cooperative housing societies are also facing encroachments, forged and fake files, and there was a loot sale of fake documents.
Cooperative society administrators are appointed to hold elections and facilitate people but unfortunately almost administrators are engage in all type of affairs except holding elections, he said, adding that the relevant departments, including the revenue department and registrar office of the cooperative societies were hands in gloves with the criminal elements in connection with illegal activities.
He highlighted scheme 33 and the societies in scheme 45 as some of the most affected societies where people are gripped in fear because of armed encroachers that seemed roaming around the neighborhood. He said that the mafia was unleashed in Gulshan e Mahmoodul Haq, KIP Wapda Society, P&T Society and others.
He said that court verdicts were also flaunted in the case of housing societies and said that the cooperative department of the government has become facilitator of the encroachers and criminal elements. He demanded the Pakistan People Party government in Sindh to take notice of the situation and stop supporting the mafia and bring some relief to the victims. Thousands of families in Karachiites have become victims of these mafia and are facing agony, he added.
The Public Aid Committee of the JI has already taken notice of the situation as it is totally unacceptable and the JI would use all means of protest against this mafia, he said, adding that the entire land grabbing system needs to come to an end.