‘No warning issued by PM to Sindh govt on waste disposal’

Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani has said that no warning has been given by Prime Minister Imran Khan to the Sindh government to do waste disposal work in Karachi in the next two months nor does the PM have the authority to give any such warning.

Speaking at the head office of the Karachi Development Authority after visiting the agency for the first time since assuming office, Ghani said on Wednesday that the PM has no authority to issue such warnings as that power has been devolved to the provinces after the 18th Amendment.

Regarding the PM’s recent announcement to give Pakistani citizenship to Bengalis and Afghanis living in Pakistan, the minister said the policy of Pakistan Peoples Party was clear on this issue as people related to this announcement fell under two categories.

“One group of people are those who migrated to our country when Pakistan came into being or Bangladesh came into existence. Then there is a group of people who belong to Pakhtun, Baloch, and other smaller identities but they face problems in the issuance of CNICs by Nadra despite being bona fide Pakistanis. People belonging to both these groups fully deserve Pakistani nationality,” he said.

“Then there is a group of people who are refugees who migrated to Pakistan from Afghanistan or from their native countries as the situation back in their native land had become deteriorated due to civil war or other reasons. Most of these people came to Pakistan illegally and have been living as refugees duly recognised under the international accords of the United Nations. Such people could not be given Pakistani nationality,” he said.

“More alarming is the aspect that when Imran Khan spoke on this issue in the National Assembly the other day he clarified that his announcement to this effect was related to Karachi. Treating Karachi differently from the rest of Pakistan on account of this issue is tantamount to opening a new Pandora’s Box,” he said.

According to Ghani, the prime minister had made an announcement to this effect but he should first tell the nation whether or not he possesses any valid data of illegal immigrants residing in the country. He said that giving Pakistani citizenship to such refugees without any valid data was out of question.

The local government minister advised the leaders of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf to first get complete information regarding the 18th Amendment before issuing any adverse statement on the issue as recently given by PTI’s MNA Faisal Vawda.

Ghani said the amendment had been adopted with consensus of all the concerned provinces and political parties. “How can a single political party, which has been unduly given the mandate to rule the country order to roll it back,” he questioned.

The minister added it was utterly unwise on the part of the Karachi mayor to unduly blame the Sindh government in case his authorities had been curtailed. The Sindh government doesn’t possess the powers, which were earlier exercised by the mayor, as the same powers had been further devolved to the grass-roots level and had been given to the district municipal corporations in Karachi.

He said that the mayor was a responsible person and he should not indulge in any such blame-game without any valid evidence. If he does possess evidence, then he should move the court or go to the NAB.

Ghani added more than 200 parks of KDA which are in a desolate state would be revived again, the land of 156 parks under illegal occupation would be recovered, while the parking plaza in Saddar would be made fully functional as the Sindh government would take steps to this effect.

He said that KDA had on its payroll some 3,200 regular employees and 1,200 contractual staffers as directors heading different departments of the authority had been asked to send to him every month a certificate regarding daily attendance in offices of these employees. Issuance of such an attendance certificate would be used to issue salaries to these bona fide employees and to tackle the issue of ghost employees in the KDA.

He said that due deliberations would be held so to transfer back the Department of Master Plan to the KDA, which at present was being looked after by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA). He said that after transfer of the Master Plan Department to the SBCA, problems of both the KDA and the general public had been increased.

He said that due legislation would be adopted to remove anomalies in the working of the departments like SBCA and Karachi Water & Sewerage Board so that the courts would be approached to get the ban lifted which is in place on new construction of certain types of buildings in the city.

The LG minister said that all the issues regarding issuance of NoCs for construction of new buildings in the city from the agencies like SBCA, KDA, and Association of Builders and Developers, would be resolved soon.

Ghani said that a formal meeting of the governing body of KDA would soon be summoned to resolve all pending issues of the authority.

He said that the Sindh government had been taking all the required steps so that the KDA and all the subsidiary agencies of the Local Government Department would be self-reliant in terms of their financial requirements.