JI to resist collection of KMC taxes through power bills

The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) on Saturday announced that it would resist the Sindh government’s plan to collect two taxes on behalf of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, fire tax and conservancy tax, from the people of Karachi through monthly billings by the K-Electric (KE).

The JI questioned the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government about the volume of tax collection from feudal lords and capitalists in the province.

At a press conference at the party’s secretariat, JI Karachi Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said that his party would resist the plan of tax collection through power bills. He added that the JI also rejected the committee formed for what he called grabbing of graveyards.

Rehman said that the tax collection plan would be opposed on all the available forums as the collection of local taxes through electricity bills was sheer injustice.

“The JI will be drumming up support against payment of electricity bills if the decision is not withdrawn,” he said, adding that the provincial government had already withheld billions of rupees under the head of Octroi taxes to be paid to Karachi.

He maintained that the feudal lords and capitalists in Sindh had made a large number of people their slaves while the government in Sindh backed by them exploited the people of the urban areas of the province, particularly Karachi.

Talking about the KE, the JI leader said the electric companies in the country, including the private company operating in Karachi, had been sending bills for 37 days instead of 30. He said the government and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority did not take any action on that.

To a question about cantonment areas, Rehman said the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) were provided with multiple chances in the cantonment areas but they did not deliver.

He expressed the hope that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had completed preparations for the local bodies elections. He said it was an obligation of the ECP to ensure free and fair elections on time.

The JI leader said the PPP launched the face of Murtaza Wahab in Karachi but the mindset behind introducing the political administrator was feudalism.

He also highlighted the contribution of the late Niamatullah Khan in the progress and development of the city.

Rehman demanded the Sindh government to immediately announce local bodies elections. He said empowered local bodies were mandatory to resolve the chronic issues being faced by the citizens of Karachi.

He claimed that the PPP, MQM-P and PTI, who were in power in some or other tier of government, did not want the local bodies elections to be held.

The JI has recently been much critical of the federal and provincial governments, blaming them for the poor civic conditions of Karachi. The party held a sit-in outside the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board head office on Wednesday in which Rehman said that most the entire city was facing a shortage of water and residents were forced to purchase water through water tankers.

“Water is not supplied through lines just because of corruption,” he said, adding that the PPP was directly responsible for the dilapidated water supply system in the city.

“Niamatullah Khan had completed the K-III plant and forwarded the K-IV water project aimed at supplying 650 million gallons of water per day to Karachi,” he said. “But the ruling regimes that came later put the project on the back burner.”