JI takes its campaign for Karachi’s rights to District Central

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) held a protest march on Saturday from Five Star Chowrangi to the Hyderi Market in District Central as part of its campaign for the rights of Karachi.

The march was led by JI Karachi Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman.

A large reception camp was set up at Five Star Chowrangi with a large banner that called District Central the most uninhabitable district of the city. The banner highlighted several problems of the district, including encroachments on its parks and playgrounds, illegal buildings, garbage dumps, dilapidated roads, overflowing manholes and stray dogs.

A sit-in was held after the march. Addressing the gathering, Rehman said the JI’s movement for the rights of Karachi reflected the voice of 30 million people.

Criticising the three political parties that are part of the federal or Sindh governments and that have political stakes in the city — Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — the JI city chief remarked that it seemed the three had formed an alliance against the interests of the city.

He said the JI demanded that the 30 million people of Karachi be given their legitimate rights, a fresh census be conducted in the city and the quota system be abolished so that thousands of educated youth of Karachi could get government jobs.

The JI city chief also deplored the existing local bodies law of Sindh. He said the law should be repealed and a new law should be made for an empowered city government in Karachi.

Rehman also called for a 15-year forensic audit of K-Electric. He said at least 1,000 buses should be brought on the roads of the city immediately to solve its transportation problems. He deplored the fact that the country's largest city had virtually no transportation system and people were forced to travel on the roofs of Qingqi rickshaws and buses.

He recalled the era when thousands of buses plied in the city, saying that the city’s transportation was destroyed by the PPP and MQM together. He added that the people of Karachi were being deceived in the name of development packages and the ruling parties had formed a nexus against the city.

The PPP had been showing hostility towards Karachi for years, Rehman allaged, adding that the MQM had enjoyed power multiple times but it did nothing to solve the basic and long-standing problems of the city.

The biased government of the province had deployed those people in District Central who could not see broken roads, overflowing manholes, dilapidated sewerage system, and burglaries and mugging incidents, the JI leader said.