KARACHI: Tens of thousands of people in Karachi marched on MA Jinnah Road from the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah to Tibet Centre against what they called a “controversial bill, aimed at squeezing the administrative and financial powers of city governments”.
People belonging to all walks of life participated in the march staged by Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chapter. On the occasion, protesters, including women, children and senior citizens chanted slogans against the controversial bill.
The PPP government in Sindh got passed the controversial bill twice in the Sindh Assembly despite its opposition by all the opposition parties, said JI Pakistan Ameer Sirajul Haq, in his address to the protesters.
He asked the Sindh chief minister to devolve the relevant powers to local governments. He said that the JI will be fighting the case of Karachi across the country if the PPP government fails to fulfil its obligations.
He said that the people of Gwadar compelled the ruling regime in the province to pay heed to their demands, with the help of their unity and resolute commitment. Similarly, he said, the ruling regime in Sindh will have to bow down before demands of Karachiites. He said that the people of Karachi have the back and support of the JI and the party will not let Karachiites on mercy of the PPP government.
Karachi is the mother of all cities and it provides the major chunk of revenue to the state but unfortunately all political parties, including the PTI, the PML-N, the PPP and the MQM plundered its resources but never delivered, he said. A progressed and developed Karachi will ensure a progressed and developed Pakistan, he added.
The JI’s supreme leader said that the people of Karachi have launched a just, lawful and constitutional struggle for their due rights. He said that the people in Karachi were demanding facilities for education, health, livelihood, public transport, potable water, electricity and gas. He further said that the episode of deprivation and injustice against the people of Karachi should come to an end.
Sirajul Haq said that a mayor equipped with powers of only sweeping the streets would be of no use for Karachi — a city of some 30 million people. Referring to the authorities and powers of mayors in Istanbul, London and other mega cities, he said that in Sindh all the powers have been cantered into the chair of chief minister and if the situation prevailed it would not help in resolving local issues. He said that the PPP government in Sindh should not have bulldozed the controversial bill in the Sindh Assembly; instead the regime should have devolved the powers to local bodies.
The JI chief said that only the JI has the capability to transform Karachi and put it on the right track. He further said that Karachi had enjoyed a remarkable era of progress and development during the tenures of mayors Niamatullah Khan and Abdul Sattar Afghani. The JI can bring back the golden era, he said.
JI Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman in his address said that the march has made it clear that the city would not tolerate imposition of feudalism. The PPP will have to withdraw the ‘black law’, he said. He announced that his party will be cordoning off the Sindh Assembly in protest against the controversial bill on December 31, 2021 if the provincial government didn’t withdraw it.
The JI leader also asked the federal and provincial governments and those in the corridors of powers about progress on the Karachi Transformation Plan. JI leader Dr Osama Razi also addressed the march. He said that the Save Karachi March, and the Karachi Rights Movement had set a new dimension for politics in the city.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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