Accountability should be across the board: Karachi mayor

LAHORE: Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar has said that accountability should be across the board and should not be of a single party, person or individual, which is giving wrong signals to the nation.

He said during “Meet the Press” programme at Lahore Press Club on Friday. The Karachi mayor spent a busy day in Lahore. He visited various places, including Manawan Hospital, Town Hall, Mizar-e-Iqbal, head office of Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) and Greater Iqbal Park. He was welcomed to Lahore by Lord Mayor Mubashar Javed and deputy mayors.

During his visit to Manawan Hospital, the Karachi mayor said that health facilities in Lahore had improved a lot. He said he would definitely get benefit from the experience of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif in improving basic facilities and public utilities in Karachi.

Later talking to the media at Huzuri Bagh, he said MQM was the forth largest party of the country and present separations in it were created. He said all MQM’s factions should clear all differences before the upcoming elections.

Later Mayor Karachi visited the head office LWMC where he was briefed on the cleanliness system. The Karachi mayor said that after seeing the clean roads of Lahore, he came to a conclusion that waste disposal was no more an issue of the city.

Speaking at “Meet the Press”, he said Nawaz Sharif had announced development packages worth Rs 25 billion for Karachi. He hoped the promised funds would be released till end April. He alleged the Sindh government had ignored Karachi and was treating the city unfairly. He announced a donation of Rs 500,000 for Lahore Press Club.

Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar said that he met the Punjab chief minister and discussed the issue of loadshedding in Karachi with him. He said the CM assured him that the issue would be resolved very soon.

To a question, he said he did not think that Imran Khan would become prime minister of Pakistan. He said so far any SHO had not arrested Imran Khan, so he didn’t know the actual problems of the general public.

He congratulated Lahorites for having a good and hardworking leadership, which has made Lahore a developed city. He said he didn’t have any powers in Karachi while the Lahore mayor had all the required powers to serve his city.