Karachi
With the first-in-command, Waseem Akhtar, behind bars, Karachi's Deputy Mayor Dr Arshad Abdullah Vohra got down to business on Wednesday, his first day in office, with calls for better coordination between municipal bodies and the local government ministry.
The deputy mayor added that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) was facing a shortage of funds, therefore, efforts to increase its income resources would be made, and inviting local and foreign investors for mega projects would be a part of it.
Promising a zero-tolerance policy for corruption, Dr Vohra said every good work would be appreciated and a wrong one discouraged.
The deputy city mayor was welcomed at the Civic Centre by director general of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Nasir Abbas, and other employees of the KDA and KMC.
Facing a myriad of problems, Dr Vohra said the city was indeed going through a serious situation for it had been left unattended for the past eight years. He added that people were expecting a lot from us and we hope the Sindh government would cooperate with us in fulfilling the expectations.
The deputy mayor said the municipality would ensure all problems were solved through both long and short term planning in order for citizens to be able to avail maximum facilities.
Responding to queries over how his office meant to go around the local bodies issues since most of the powers lay with the ministry of local government, Dr Vohra stated that officials had done a proper homework over solving issues ever since winning the local bodies’ polls.
Deputy mayor Vohra said the vacuum created in the absence of local bodies system had now been done away with. He added that elected members of union councils would be a good help for the Sindh government since they had a first hand knowledge of problems being faced by the average citizen.
Dr Arshad Vohra later went to the old building housing KMC offices to meet with city council members, and assured them of introducing new taxes.
A senior official of the KMC, Masood Alam, while briefing the deputy mayor over the civic body’s issues said that as per law KMC was not entitled to keep its offices at the civic centre. The deputy mayor called a meeting of selected KMC officers for today at the old building.
Otherwise a smooth sailing for the deputy, it was during his visit to the KMC office that KDA and KMC employees resorted to slogans upholding the integrity of Pakistan; the event stemmed as a reaction to deputy mayor’s political affiliation with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), whose founding member Altaf Hussain had delivered an ‘anti-state’ speech last week.
