Govt, MQM at odds over outsourcing of Karachi’s public parks

Opposition leader says provincial govt’s move aimed

at snatching away powers of KMC and DMCs

Pandemonium was witnessed in the Sindh Assembly on Monday as the opposition Muttahida Qaumi Movement criticised the Sindh government for “attempting to interfere in the functioning of municipal bodies and usurp their powers by outsourcing the management of public parks in Karachi to multinational companies”.Opposition leader Khawaja Izhar-ul-Hassan of the MQM on a point of order raised the issue of a recent decision of the Sindh government to hand over the management of public parks in Karachi to multinational companies.

Referring to a notification of Sindh government dated October 25, 2015, the opposition leader said the decision on the management of public parks was tantamount to interfering in the functioning of municipal agencies and usurping their powers.

He said the Sindh government had taken the decision without taking the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and district municipal corporations into confidence.  

Hassan said before August 24 this year, the local bodies were under the provincial government’s control and during that period, no improvement was seen in the civic affairs of the city including its public parks.

He said a sense of deprivation had emerged among municipal bodies as the Sindh government was attempting to take away the powers of the city’s mayor, the deputy mayor, and the chairpersons of councils instead of making this municipal team a part and parcel of its system of governance.

In response, local government minister Jam Khan Shoro said the provincial government in general and his department in particular had always tried to discharge their duties in association with municipal bodies.

He mentioned the project of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board, which was gradually being rolled out in the city while taking into account the relevant municipal bodies in the city.

Shoro said nobody should object to the decision to hand over the management of parks to the corporate sector as the government had been approached by different multinational, local and non-governmental entities to transfer affairs related to the maintenance of parks to them.

He said that in the past too certain parks in the city were being poorly managed and were handed over to NGOs.

The parliamentary leader of the MQM in the House, Syed Sardar Ahmed, said that a law on the adoption of public parks was present but there was no valid cause to take away the control of parks away from municipal bodies.

He said the court would be moved to challenge the manner in which the Sindh government was running municipal bodies as such policies did not fall under the definition of democracy.

The local government minister retorted that it was not a general policy decision of the provincial government on the management of parks and nobody should object if any corporate entity or NGO was showing its willingness to take over the control of parks.

The opposition leader said that funds to the tune of millions of rupees had been reserved in the past for management of parks but no improvement was seen.

He said the Pakistan People’s Party’s provincial government had even ruined the park in Karachi named after the late Benazir Bhutto and everybody knew about the state it was presently in.

Shoro said by year 2012, all public parks and municipal bodies were under the MQM’s control and everybody knew that parks were encroached upon during that period and also subjected to “China cutting”.

The environment in the house heated up as lawmakers on the opposition and treasury benches traded allegations of illegal occupation and China cutting of public land. During tense situation, speaker Agha Siraj Khan Durrani read out the order of the Sindh governor to prorogue the current session of assembly which was under way since November 14.

Power rates

Earlier while speaking on a point of order, the opposition leader raised the issue of the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority ordering bringing down the electricity rates in the entire country except for the consumers in Karachi.

Citing newspaper reports, he said Nepra was reducing the per-unit cost of electricity by Rs2.6 for power consumers in the entire country but the residents of the city were not being passed on this benefit.

He said recently the House had unanimously passed a resolution urging Nepra not to allow an increase in the electricity tariff of the K-Electric as the power utility was already subjecting its customers to financial exploitation.

The speaker said the resolution passed by provincial assembly about the K-Electric had been sent to federal government and he hoped that the provincial government would take up the issue with the Centre.

Earlier, the speaker termed out of order an adjournment motion moved by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Khurrum Sher Zaman on the provincial government providing insufficient funds to the KMC.

Parliamentary affairs minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro opposed the motion saying that the provincial govt had spent millions of rupees on the development of the city and a special package of Rs10 billion too was announced for the city’s uplift.

He said that the opposition lawmaker while moving his adjournment motion was unaware of the efforts made by the provincial government to improve the civic and municipal affairs of Karachi.

The PTI lawmaker alleged that the government had turned Karachi into a heap of garbage as the elected mayor and deputy mayor of the city lacked funds to manage the civic affairs of the city.

Media talk

Later talking to reporters after the session of the assembly, Hassan said the local government minister was truing to hand over the control of public parks in the city to foreign companies merely by issuing a notification.

“If performance is the criterion for making such a decision, then the management of the entire Sindh government should be handed over to some foreign company,” he added.

He said an investigation should be launched into the instances of China cutting in the city and it should start from the provincial ministers of the PPP.

He said even China cutting was under way even during the present regime of PPP and several parks of the Karachi Development Authority had been illegally occupied. He added that KDA director general had to appear before the National Accountability Bureau in connection with an investigation under way into these cases.