JI berates PPP for ‘planning to collect Rs600m per month’ from Karachiites'

Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has strongly criticised the Sindh government for pushing a plan to collect an estimated amount of Rs600 million per month from Karachi’s residents under the head of municipal taxes to be included in electricity bills.

In a reaction to the statement issued by Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab, he said on Thursday the Pakistan Peoples Party’s provincial government itself was forcing the people towards “a kind of civil disobedience movement”.

The JI leader warned the government of public outburst against what he called “sheer injustice” to Karachi’s residents. He added that the JI had already contemplated over consultation with various communities in connection with the drive against the payment of electricity bills inclusive of the municipality tax.

He said the Sindh government once again talked about the nod by the federal government over the arrangement to include municipal taxes in the electricity bills, so the government in the Centre would also have to clear its position on the matter.

Rehman said that apparently the PTI government in the Center and the PPP government in the province had joined hands against Karachi.

He remarked that such a cruel attempt was being made in a scenario in which the provincial government had lost the moral grounds to receive the municipal tax because no civic facilities were being offered to the citizens.

He said the rising inflation had already made it next to impossible for the larger part of the population to make both ends meet. Rehman maintained that to add insult to injury, the provincial government was mulling over forcibly collecting another huge amount “from the pockets of already marooned segments of the society”.

He said that against this backdrop, the JI had decided to further pace up its Karachi Rights Movement. He said the party would take up the issue on all available platforms, besides exercising the democratic right of protest.