JI to protest water shortage on May 31

KARACHI: Over the worsening water crisis in the city, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has decided to stage a protest demonstration outside the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board’s managing director’s office on Sharea Faisal at 5pm on May 31, a statement issued by the party on Saturday said.

The JI’s Karachi office-bearers held a meeting, chaired by its city chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, to discuss the ongoing water and power crises amid the persisting heatwave in Ramazan and resolved to move the authorities through a public movement, it said.

Speaking to the meeting that was attended by the party’s all divisional and zonal leadership, Rehman said that the government and its institutions were responsible for the crises, for they neglected their duties and in connivance with the mafia deprived the public of their basic right to get basic amenities.

“Apart from unfair distribution, water theft was one of the top problems. The KWSB high-ups and staffers are involved in this. Because of their nexus with the tanker mafia, the public was without water and most of the areas had nearly dried up,” he said.

He added that in some areas, residents had not received water for past several months. He said that though there was no water on the pretext of a shortage, people could buy as much as they wanted from tankers.

He said that Lyari residents had been protesting for the past several days on the issue and now the residents of other areas were also taking to the streets. He warned that if the government did not look into it seriously, the sense of deprivation could lead to a law and order situation.

“That’s why, we want to bring it to the notice of the KWSB that they are not fulfilling their responsibility to provide water to the people of Karachi,” he said, adding: “Our protest and sit-in will be peaceful. We will continue our campaign until the redressal of the problem.”