Wahab wants KMC revenue targets achieved

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Administrator Murtaza Wahab has directed officials of the municipality to make sure that revenue targets of the KMC were met.

Wahab, who also serves as the spokesperson for the Sindh government and adviser to the CM on law, issued this direction during a departmental meeting of the KMC on Friday.

KMC Metropolitan Commissioner Syed Afzal Zaidi, Senior Director Health Dr Abdul Hameed Jamani, Parks Director General (DG) Junaid Ullah Khan and other officials attended the meeting.

Wahab stressed the need for improving departmental performances if the KMC. He said the development works of public interest should be completed as soon as possible and the orders of the Supreme Court regarding encroachments and parks of the city should be implemented.

The KMC administrator directed the parks DG to make sure that all the parks under the administrative control of the metropolitan corporation are functional. He also issued directives for planting seasonal flowering plants in all the 46 parks of the corporation.

Speaking to the media outside the Sindh Assembly, the administrator said the country was suffering from crises due to the incompetence of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. “The Pakistani people are asking those who give the right to vote to the overseas Pakistanis that when they will give us the right to vote," the KMC administrator said.

He remarked that the incompetent government had given the right to vote to the Pakistanis living abroad but had taken away that right from the Pakistanis living in the country.

"Industrialists are worried that gas is not available," he said.

Speaking on federal energy minister Hamad Azhar’s claim that Sindh produced 38 per cent of the country’s gas, Wahab clarified that Sindh produced 64 per cent of the gas, Balochistan 22 per cent, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 11 per cent and Punjab three per cent.

He said that Sindh's industries and transporters were deprived of gas, which would increase unemployment.

“The law says that the province which produces more gas will get more gas. They all believe this fact behind their backs but do not accept it. Their priority is not people but their ATMs and elites,” Wahab stated.

"Let me give another example of [The PTI’s] incompetence. When they got power, the sugar cost Rs55 per kilogramme. Khan took notice of it and the sugar price soared to Rs170," the KMC administrator remarked.

In response to another question, he said the Lyari Expressway was under the management of the National Highway Authority. “We want the Lyari Expressway to be opened for heavy traffic,” he said, adding that Sindh Governor Imran Ismail had assured his support for heavy traffic movement on the Lyari Expressway.

Wahab said he was grateful to the governor for that and he also had a meeting with Federal Communication Minister Murad Saeed. He added that after technical feasibility, the decision to allow heavy traffic on the Lyari Expressway would be taken.

He also made an announcement on behalf of the Sindh government for lawyers, saying that the provincial government would provide health insurance to 35,000 registered lawyers.