Meet the press: Mustafa Kamal warns government to end corruption

He speaks about how port city has ‘deteriorated’ since his tenure as mayor.

KARACHI: Former mayor and former Senator Mustafa Kamal warned the federal and provincial governments to mend their ways and end corruption else he would announce his plan of action after Eid.

“The government should not think of us as ‘orphans’ and ‘homeless persons’. We are the owners of the city. To the government, I would say that mend your ways, fix yourself otherwise after Eid I will announce my plan of action. This is my first warning,” he said while speaking at ‘Meet the Press’ held at Karachi Press Club on Thursday.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) dissident, who arrived in the country from Dubai on March 3 and formed his own political party, the Pak Sarzameen Party, mostly compared the condition of the city when he was mayor and how it is today, while speaking to the journalists.

Lashing out at the MQM and Altaf Hussain, he said that RAW was providing money to them, which led to killings of doctors and other professionals.

Then and now

Recalling the work he had done for the city, he claimed that the city had seen development, when he was the mayor, which the rest of the country had not witnessed in its 50 years.

He said that, in 2016, 12,000 tons of garbage was being produced, but only 2,500 to 3,000 tons was lifted, and that too was being thrown on parks, streets and nullahs. Kamal said that he had provided vehicles to pick up trash but today, their parts were sold along with the tyres and they had no money for fuel. On the city’s parks, he said that he had opened 130 acres Bagh-e-Ibn Qasim, which had become a tourist spot but, today, it is in a deplorable state.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2016.