Monem appeals to Karachiites to join today’s Karachi Rights March

Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Monem Zafar Khan on Saturday visited several publicity camps on important intersections of the city where he invited the people of Karachi to participate in the JI’s Karachi Rights March scheduled for today.

The march will be held from the Karachi Press Club to the Chief Minister House to register protest against the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) government in Sindh over what the JI says the government’s poor performance, incompetence, mismanagement and corruption.

Khan blamed the Sindh government for deteriorating conditions of Karachi and destruction of its civic infrastructure. He said the provincial government had failed to empower the local bodies governed by the JI in Karachi and this all had forced the party to hold the Karachi Rights March.

Khan will lead the march for which JI workers and supporters from across the city will come to the KPC in the form of rallies.

All the arrangements in connection with the march have been finalised. Besides publicity camps, thousands of handbills were distributed across Karachi urging the citizens to join the march for their due rights.

In his appeal, Khan urged Karachi’s citizens, including the youth, students, teachers, scholars, doctors, engineers, lawyers, workers and businessmen, to come out in full force to claim their rights.

He emphasised that public resistance and struggle was the only way forward for the residents of Karachi. He said the march was aimed at compelling the rulers to address the problems being faced by the citizens of Karachi. He said the megacity was the backbone of the country’s economy contributing 95 per cent to the Sindh budget.

He said people of Karachi paid billions in taxes last year yet they remained deprived of basic facilities such as health care, sanitation, transportation and clean drinking water. He held the PPP government responsible for all the woes of Karachiites.

The PPP had been ruling Sindh for 17 years, during which it corrupted Karachi’s institutions and resources, he said. He also criticised the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) for what he said its political role in the past 40 years that led to destruction of Karachi.

The JI leader expressed concern over the PPP’s continued control of the local government institutions in Karachi with no intention to decentralise power or resources to the grassroots level.

He said the situation in Karachi worsened after the recent rains in the city that left the infrastructure in disarray, roads damaged and sewerage system overflowing. He also highlighted the crises surrounding transport, water and other utilities.

The public was deceived by the guise of a new canal from the Hub Dam, he said. He lamented that no government or ruling party seemed concerned with Karachi’s problems, which were being exploited solely for financial gains. Only the JI stood with the people being the true representative of Karachi’s residents, he said.