Instead of making coordinated efforts to resolve issues of Karachi ahead of the holy month of Ramazan, the Sindh govt and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) have started blaming each other for financial irregularities and corruption.
Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Barrister Murtaza Wahab at a press conference accused KMC of mismanaging financial matters and said mayor Karachi has to render account of Rs39 billion released by Sindh government to KMC adding that mayor should stop crying for powers as the people of Karachi voted them not for playing politics but for resolving issues.
In response to Wahab's remarks, Mayor held an emergent presser saying PPP leadership should themselves be made accountable for large-scale corruption done being in power in Sindh during more than ten years.
"I have been asked to give the details of spending Rs39 billion which they claimed to have been released to KMC whereas whole country and the Supreme Court are demanding them to give the details of spending Rs90 billion alone on Larkana and Rs2 thousand billion on whole Sindh," Waseem said.
Mayor said the Sindh government in three years (2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19) gave Rs 17 billion on account of salary release for KMC employees and Rs7.8 billion for pension of retired employees which comes to about Rs26 billion and they released sum of Rs10.34 billion on account of ADP release for the same period from 2016 to 2019 and this amount was paid to the contractors directly by the government through AGPR.
Out of this, Rs8.66 billion were for ongoing sachems and remaining 1.677 billion for new schemes. This is the total amount released in three years to Karachi which is about Rs38 billion, Mayor said.
He said the share of Octroi Zila Tax of KMC is Rs1.17 billion but we get only Rs590 million instead and the Sindh government curtailed about Rs580 million each month from it in the name of mega projects.
They are not setting up the formula under PFC deliberately so that KMC not getting its due share. Citizens of Karachi are sensible enough to understand all this and they cannot be fooled by showing wrong figures or making such baseless allegations.
He said the PPP leadership could consult with the finance department before going to make this claim they would have a clear picture had they did this. He said the Sindh government was using KMC functions and making mega projects in Karachi to gain the political benefits but these projects have no quality or standard and can be seen on ground.
Mayor said KMC collects Rs 1.2 billion revenue from its own resources which it spends on the providing of municipal services like fire brigade, health care facilities in hospitals, maintenance of parks and grounds including zoo and safari park, maintenance of 22 major roads, and for POL and oxygen for hospitals whereas its revenue resources were further devolved to other civic bodies which made KMC hard to bear its own expenditures.
He said the Sindh government could not give funds for development of Karachi however MQM brought Rs9 billion development projects for the city including two bridges and two major roads construction which are currently nearing completion and this is a big achievement.
Earlier talking to the journalists at Sindh Assembly's media corner, the adviser said MQM-P always promoted hate politics and added that those who were dreaming partition of Sindh will fail again.
Wahab said he always raised queries based on facts and figures about the KMC expenditures but they neither clarified the objection nor gave any details. He said Sindh government has released Rs 39 billion to KMC in last three years but no one knows where this huge amount was spent.
The provincial adviser remarked that neither they remained successful in reducing the miseries of people nor made any improvement in the KMC system. He said Sindh government has spent Rs 8 billion on the development of infrastructure of Karachi and improved Shahra-e-Faisal, University Road, Hub River Road, cantt station road, Clifton fly over and Shaheed -e-Millat fly over.
He said whether people of Karachi were being provided health facilities at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and heart disease hospitals run by Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. So it is valid question where these Rs 39 billion were spent, the adviser added. He said how long will you shed crocodile tears and added people of Karachi have identified you. He said KMC has its own resources of revenue but they never met the targets of collection.
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