KARACHI: Chief of Karachi chapter of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman lambasted the PPP government in Sindh over what he said massive corruption in road carpeting works currently ongoing in the city.
The JI leader expressed these views at a press conference held at Idara Noor-e-Haq. He quoted media reports as saying that huge funds were issued to contractors without tenders for the patchwork.
There were also reports of mismanagement and corruption in connection with grant of contracts, he said.
Engr Naeemur Rehman said that in addition to the corruption, tens of millions of rupees were spent on advertisement for renovation of some roads but on the ground, those roads were still in the miserable conditions. He announced that the JI has decided to constitute a committee to monitor the entire process. He also appealed masses to record videos of substandard repairing works of roads and send those to the JI.
He further said that the ongoing corruption in development works was the reason behind the PPP's attempts to delay the local bodies’ elections in the city. Further talking about the local government polls, he said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan and the Sindh High Court had already issued orders to ensure timely elections of the local government setup, whereas both the PPP government in Sindh and the Election Commission of Pakistan have been violating the judicial orders by continuously delaying the polls.
He said that at one hand, the PPP government in Sindh was chanting the mantra of shortage of security personnel and using it as a pretext to delay the polls, while on the other it was sending 6,000 police personnel to Islamabad to sabotage the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's protest in the capital. He also announced that the JI would file a petition before the apex court against the delay in local bodies’ polls and the hurdles created in this regard by the PPP government.
He warned the Sindh government to bring in clarity in the ongoing patchwork of roads otherwise the JI would not only resort to agitation but also approach the judiciary in this regard.
On the occasion, he also took up the issue of Rs 12.68 fuel adjustment charges and dubbed it plundering of the national exchequer. He elaborated that no matter the charges would affect masses directly or not, it might affect the taxpayers' money in the national exchequer. He appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan to take a suo moto notice of the fuel adjustment charges and other tactics employed by the nexus of the K-Electric and the government.
He demanded of the government to nationalize the KE and run a forensic audit of the KE accounts. He also demanded of the government to invite more companies for the process of power generation and transmission in order to end the illegal monopoly in the sector on part of the KE.
Demanding the ruling regime to end the patronage of the KE, he asked the rulers to reveal what was going on in connection with the sale of the KE's shares. He said that the Pakistan Stock Exchange had sought an explanation by the KE over reports of the sale of its share and the KE in response submitted an explanation. He added that explanation by the KE should be made public.
The JI leader recalled that the apex court had also asked if India or Israel was the owner of the KE and some remarks about cancellation of the KE license were passed. In response to which, PTI leaders, including Asad Umar had approached the judges in their chamber, appealing them not to suspend the license.
The JI leader also expressed his grief over the brutal murder of Arshad Sharif in Kenya and demanded of the government for an impartial inquiry into the cold blooded murder. He also expressed his condolence to the grieved family.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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