Citizens allege local PTI leader demanding bribe over water connection

Residents of a locality in Gulistan-e-Jauhar complained on Friday of a local leader of a political party as they claimed that he demanded bribes to provide water connections to their houses.

The issue emerged on Wednesday when the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) carried out some digging in Gulistan-e-Jauhar Block 12 for the relocation of a total of 12 70-metre optic fiber cables. As the digging could affect water and sewerage infrastructure, the PTCL fiber optics manager informed an official of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) about it.

Residents of the area shared with The News that during the digging, the telecommunication authority dismantled a few sewerage and water lines. It was then a man, who introduced himself as Shakeel, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Gulistan-e-Jauhar Block 12 president, visited the locality and asked the residents to pay Rs30,000 for a new water connection. “The political party’s president insisted that if he is given money, he will provide new connection then and there,” one of the residents shared.

After the resident refused to pay him money, Shakeel approached him again and asked for the challan of the water connection while the PTCL was still carrying out their relocation work. “We refused to show him any challan and asked him in what capacity he was demanding that,” the resident said, adding that on their refusal, the PTI local leader threatened them that their water connections would be disconnected as they were illegal.

Two days later on Friday, the resident said, one of Shakeel’s companions disconnected the water connection, prompting the residents to call the police helpline 15, after which police reached the locality but they were reluctant to take action against the PTI leader and his companions. They asked the residents to visit the police station.

The residents visited the Sharea Faisal police station and filed a complaint; however, no action was taken by the evening. When Sharea Faisal SHO Sarwar Commando was contacted by The News, he said, “We will not allow anyone to take law in their hands.” He also maintained that a police team would be despatched to arrest the suspects.

When The News approached Shakeel, he accepted that he was the PTI president of Gulistan-e-Jauhar Block 12 but denied demanding any money from the residents. He instead claimed that he had been called by some people of the neighbourhood to help resolve a dispute over the water connection.

When asked in what capacity a local president of a political party could intervene in resolving water issues, he said the PTI was the ruling party in the federal government and its mission was to serve people by resolving their civic issues wherever it could.

Meanwhile, PTI Karachi chief Khurrum Sher Zaman told The News that the PTI had no link with such issues. “It is an old tactic of the water board officials who blackmail citizens in order to get bribes,” he said. “I don’t think so that the PTI men are asking bribes from the people as I think that someone is trying to defame the PTI. If someone is actually involved, he should be identified and a strict action should be taken against them.”