Mayor calls business community to city’s rescue

“Speak for the city before worrying about factories, or import and exports.” With these words, Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar on Monday implored the business community to join hands with him to make Karachi a vibrant and prosperous metropolis.

Expressing his views during a visit to the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Akhtar said the city’s problems were visible to everyone but, unfortunately, only the city’s local administration was taking them seriously.

The mayor requested the business community to raise its voice, not for the mayor, but for the state of neglect their own city has been subjected to.

He said he would resign from his post if someone could solve its problems within a year’s time. “This is a joke! The city is being planned for by those who do not have a mandate here,” the mayor asserted.

Deputy city mayor, Arshad Abdullah Vohra, while speaking at the meeting called for making public whatever the business community or the FPCCI talked about with the government, for the sake of city’s problems.

He also attempted to move the business community and traders to ‘realise their responsibility for improving industrial areas along with the entire city’.

“Lahore should be developed; likewise the whole of Pakistan should progress. But the financial injustice meted out to Karachi must be stopped.”

Earlier FPCCI President in his welcome address said Karachi plays a key role in the development of national economy, but the city was facing acute problems, and both the Sindh and federal government must do the needful, immediately.

He hoped that the city mayor with his knowledge regarding the city’s problems would succeed in solving them.

Tufail further said that he would speak to the chief minister and the federal finance minister about the issues raised by Mayor Karachi, so that required funds could be released as soon as possible.

Besides deputy city mayor, the mayor was also accompanied by municipal commissioner Dr Badar Jamil, financial advisor Khalid Mehmood Shaikh and senior director municipal services Masood Alam; vice president FPCCI, Ishatiaq Baig, Senator Abdul Haseeb Khan, Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, Ghazala Saifi, Khalid Tawab and other FPCCI office bearers and members were also present on this occasion.