Wahab saying exactly what I kept on saying about KMC’s powers during mayoral tenure: Akhtar

Only within a few months since his appointment as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) administrator, Murtaza Wahab has realised how little role he can play for the development of Karachi as the head of the city’s municipality.

Former Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar said this on Sunday as he spoke to The News about Wahab’s statements that he made during a talk on Friday at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA). “Wahab is saying exactly what I kept on saying during my four-year tenure as the elected mayor of Karachi,” Akhtar remarked.

To everybody’s surprise, the incumbent KMC administrator, who belongs to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and also serves as the spokesperson for the Sindh government, had indeed sounded like Akhtar during his IBA talk when he spoke about how little funds the KMC had and how the municipality had no control over various civic agencies of the city.

“You tie my hands and feet, and push me into the ocean, How do I float?” Wahab had remarked during his conversation with IBA Executive Director Dr S Akbar Zaidi, titled ‘Karachi: the Way Forward’. To this, Akhtar said these used to be exactly his very words when he was the Karachi mayor.

Speaking at his residence, the former mayor, who belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), remarked that he understood Wahab’s limitations and feeling of helplessness as he had gone through all this.

Akhtar was elected as the city’s mayor on the MQM’s ticket from 2016 till 2020. During his entire tenure, he seemed to be at loggerheads with the PPP-led Sindh government, which he accused of stealing his mayoral powers and depriving the city’s metropolitan corporation from its many revenue generations streams and functions.

The PPP, in turn, criticised Akhtar for not accomplishing anything in terms of whatever powers he had as the mayor, and depicted him as someone who did nothing but raising hue and cry over lack of powers.

During the IBA talk, Wahab had pointed out how the seven District Municipal Corporations ran in parallel to the KMC, various civic functions had been distributed among 17 municipal agencies that often engaged in blame game. However, on the following day on Saturday, the KMC administrator held a press conference, in which his tone was quite different as he bragged about various projects initiated by the PPP in Karachi.

Commenting on Wahab’s press conference on Saturday, Akhtar said it was a damage control exercise. He claimed that in that press conference, the KMC administrator did not mention a single KMC’s project for the city, and continued to cite projects funded by the Sindh government and donor agencies like the World Bank.

The former mayor alleged that many civic agencies of Karachi like the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Lyari Development Authority and Malir Development Authority were up to no good as they only served as windows to receive bribes.

Tax collection

In his IBA talk, Wahab had also pointed out the extremely limited avenues of revenue generation available to the KMC, saying that when he tried to increase the rent of the KMC’s beach huts, markets and fuel stations, their tenants went to court and obtained stay orders.

Referring to this, Akhtar said he also kept voicing his concerns against stay orders during his tenure. He requested Wahab to play his role in empowering the corporation as he was a part of the Sindh government.

The former mayor mentioned that under the Sindh Local Government Act, the elected mayor was allowed to lease any of the KMC’s space for only one year, however, in the past, he could do that for 25 years. “There cannot be any public-private partnership development project under one-year lease,” he asserted.

On the municipal taxes that Wahab wants to be collected through the KE bills, Akhtar said the municipal utility tax collection was not more than Rs21 million because various municipal functions such as those of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) and Sindh Solid Waste Management Board were with the Sindh government, not the KMC.

He recalled that under the local government system introduced during the Musharraf era, citizens used to pay municipal tax as all the civic functions were under the local government, which used to deliver.

The former mayor further shed light on the controversial Sindh Local Government Act 2013, which is said to be enacted by the PPP government to snatch powers of the elected local governments. He stated that the law deprived the KMC of many revenue generation

avenues.

Akhtar explained that there is a fee on the conversion of land use all over the city, which is received by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) but not shared with the KMC. Similarly, he added that the toll on roads and bridges owned and maintained by the KMC cannot be collected by the corporation as the Sindh transport department does that. Regarding the charged parking on roads under the KMC, the former mayor said the parking fee is collected by the DMCs.

The former mayor lamented that the Sindh government even does not allow the KMC to collect taxes or fees that it can under the 2013 Act. He said the KMC can lawfully collect the tax over the installation of base transceiver station (BTS) towers on buildings but that tax is collected by the SBCA.

The entertainment tax, which comes under the domain of the KMC under the local government law, is collected by the excise department of the Sindh government, he claimed.

Speaking on cess, which is a certain percentage of the taxes collected from Karachi that the Sindh government is liable to pay to the KMC, Akhtar said it is never paid. He requested Wahab to make the Sindh government pay the KMC’s dues in terms of the Octrai Zilla tax, which amounted to around Rs61 billion.

It is, however, pertinent to mention here that then governor Dr Ishrat ul Ebad, who belonged to the MQM, had given his assent to the 2013 law government law.

KMC functions

Speaking on the functions left with the KMC after the enactment of the Sindh Local Government Act, the former mayor said one of those functions was management of the Special Development Programme, which the Sindh government had been managing.

He added that the KMC could maintain abattoirs and cattle colonies under the law but they were being largely managed by the DMC Malir. Similarly, he said, the KMC’s function of coordination, monitoring and supervision of the inter-district development was being carried out by the Sindh local government department.

The civil defence function of the KMC was being managed by the Sindh home department, the traffic engineering function by the transport department, and regulations related to milk by the Karachi commissioner and price control department of the provincial government, Akhtar maintained.

He added that the regulation of kilns for bricks, pottery and other purposes was now being carried out by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency, which was also under the Sindh government.

The former mayor said all these functions could be given to the KMC, and Wahab should ensure he has authority in these matters so that he could deliver something in his capacity as the KMC administrator.

PML-N projects

Akhtar also opined that Karachi was in a better state during the last tenure of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) government.

He recalled that how, despite his history of flamboyant and aggressive press conferences against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, the latter extended his cooperation to him when he came to Karachi as the prime minister, and agreed to allocate funds for the city, which resulted in noticeable development.

On the contrary, Akhtar said the incumbent prime minister of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Imran Khan, only had lots of ideas but nothing that could be actualised. The former mayor said the PTI had been taking the credit for many Karachi projects initiated during the PML-N government.