The people of Karachi still lack the freedom to exercise their right to vote and elect their representatives in the assemblies of their own free will.
This was stated by Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani while he was addressing on Friday the inauguration ceremony of an exhibition, ‘My Karachi Expo’, at the Expo Centre. “Karachi is the real Pakistan and that is the reason it is not being offered the political independence it deserves. Puppets are always created to win the elections to keep this city and its people in a state of constant slavery,” Ghani said.
The local government minister was of the view that the dream of peace in Karachi could not be turned into a perpetual reality if the time foreign interference in the politics, commerce, and institutions of Karachi continued.
“Even today, I sense the danger that peace restored in Karachi could again be tarnished,” he said, adding that peace in the city could have easily been achieved 15 years back. “Everybody knows the factors, which came into play and led to normalisation of the situation here,” he said, alleging that puppets had been installed to control the affairs of Karachi.
Ghani said the current situation of Karachi was an improved one but it could not be made a permanent feature till the time people of the city got the right to choose their elected representatives of their own free will.
He said there were certain hidden forces that did not allow the situation of Karachi to be stabilised. “Please tell me the name of a single city in the entire world, the people of which themselves choke their sewerage lines or damage them but such sabotage acts did take place in Karachi during the past and this continues to happen even today,” he said.
According to the minister, if someone wanted to turn Karachi into the real Pakistan, they should offer independence to its people in all the spheres of life, including politics and business.
Karachi is a large city with an area of over 3,800 square kilometres, Ghani said, adding that it was obvious that the issues of such a large city would also be complicated. “We want to put our institutions on the right path but nobody is willing to recognise the hurdles we face,” he said.
“If I just talk about the local government department, no good officer is willing to work for this department in order to avoid humiliation at the hands of NAB,” he said. “We appreciate the efforts put in by the judiciary to rectify the system but no government official could deliver in the face of humiliation and actions taken by institutions when they overstep their authority,” he said.
“If for example 10,000 people are rendered jobless due to the anti-encroachment drive carried out in the city on the judicial orders, the same judiciary blames the Sindh government for the unemployment resultantly created,” he said.
He said the affairs of the Sindh government in the present day had degenerated to such an extent that it lacked the requisite funds to pay salaries to its employees as the Centre in the last eight months did not pay the dues of Rs120 billion to the province.
He said institutions should duly recognise their limits as they should not subject government officials to humiliation on the account of cases of corruption containing charges of embezzlement of very paltry sums of public funds.