Opposition members in the City Council shouted "No" on Monday when treasury members sought their support for a resolution lauding City Nazim Mustafa Kamal for being honoured and placed Second on the list of world's 'top mayors for 2008' by an American magazine.
Rather, they accused the city nazim of having a discriminatory approach towards opposition-dominated areas of the city, contending that he had served only 12 to 13 towns, and had never been fair to the opposition-dominated towns, like Keamari, Lyari, Gadap, Baldia, etc. "Pay a short visit to our neighbourhoods and you would know well whether he (Kamal) is the nazim of the entire city or otherwise," said Saeed Ghani, leader of the opposition in City Council when leader of the house, Asif Siddiqui, asked for his side's support.
A general session of City Council was held here at City Council Hall, Old KMC Building on M.A Jinnah Road with Naib Nazim Nasrin Jalil in the chair. The city legislators said 'yes' to seven resolutions, two of these for condolence over the death of former Karachi Mayor, Interior Minister and Governor Sindh Mehmood A Haroon, and Shahnawaz, Labour Councillor, UC-1, Shah Faisal Town.
The session, which was started with 25-minute delay at 3:25 pm, witnessed a heated debate and a two-time walkout by the opposition members who appeared critical of Kamal for withholding the long-awaited UC funds and ignoring the opposition's towns in terms of development, when the convenor allowed debate on the resolution.
An opposition member Shamim Mumtaz Wasi also criticised the Haq Parast members for dedicating the "historical" session which, she said, had cost lakhs of rupees to the city government, for praising a single person--Kamal. The opposition members said it would have been more cheerful for them if the people of Karachi had praised the city nazim instead of an American magazine, which was not fully aware of ground realities in the city.
Jumman Darwan and Mohammad Yaqoob from opposition benches said the nazim was serving only 13 towns and was not aware of poor state of infrastructure development in the opposition areas, which were showing like ruins. The Haq Parast members, however, were of the opinion that Kamal had indiscriminately undertaken unprecedented development projects in Karachi that remained the most neglected city during the last 60 years.
Masood Mehmood, urging the opposition members to join his side, said the move would send a good message abroad. Arshad Qureshi countering Darwan's argument what if "we question them (former rulers and allies of opposition members) that what had they done to develop the least developed towns like Keamari, Lyari, Baldia etc."
Meanwhile, a strong outcry came from treasury benches when Ghani took the floor on point of order and started reading out a city government's letter allowing allotment of KWSB land for Water Treatment Plant to affectees of Preedy Street (Lines Area), a move the opposition leader said was "illegal".
Ghani opted for a walkout when the convenor disallowed him to read out the letter and asked him to first submit the paper in her office. She, on the advice of Rafique Ahmed of Al-Khidmat Group, said the matter would be taken up in some other session.
The opposition said "No" and again staged a walkout when Jalil asked the house to vote for/against the resolution that paid rich tributes to the 36-years-old city nazim for changing the face of Karachi in a short span of three years.
The house also passed four other resolutions unanimously in the absence of opposition members that allowed correction in the limits of University Road (from Safoora Roundabout to Gulshan-e-Iqbal Plot ST-9) for commercial use, reorganisation of departments of Saddar Town in connection with changes in the names, designations and creation of new vacancies, replacement of words "under public-private partnership" in Resolution No-382 passed on July 10, 2008 with "joint venture or existing laws on disposal of land" and increase in monthly stipend for students of Midwifery Internship in CDGK's maternity hospitals. This brought proceedings of the house to suspension till November 13, 2008.
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