‘Keep your cars, give us funds, machines to clean the city’

MQM's elected vice-chairpersons refused to accept official cars from Sindh government

KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) local government elected representatives refused to accept cars from the Sindh government and instead asked for funds and machinery to clean the city.

The rift between the Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP’s) Sindh and MQM’s local government intensified when the latter refused to receive 1,000cc cars for its elected district vice-chairmen on Saturday.

A ceremony was held at the Karachi Development Authority's headquarters at Civic Centre, rather than the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation's (KMC) building on MA Jinnah Road on Monday. Local Government Secretary Muhammad Ramzan, on behalf of the Sindh government, distributed around 60 Suzuki Cultus cars to the elected local government members.

According to Ramzan, there are total of 214 cars that have to be distributed. The vice-chairmen of six District Municipal Corporations (DMCs) of Karachi, vice-chairmen of 24 district councils of Sindh, chairmen of 146 town committees of interior Sindh and chairmen of 38 municipal corporations of Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana will be given cultus cars.

Whereas, the chairmen of six DMCs in Karachi, 24 district councils and three mayors of municipal corporations of Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana  will be given Toyota Corollas. This will cost the Sindh government around Rs390 million, according to him.



MQM's elected vice-chairmen refused to receive the cars in protest. Central DMC's Vice-Chairman Shakir Ali said that they do not need new cars from the Sindh government and actually want vehicles and funds to clean the city. The vice-chairmen were insulted by the Sindh government, he said, when they were asked for their Computerised National Identity Cards (CNICs) before the cars were handed over. "Will [Local Government Minister] Jam Khan Shoro ever be asked by the Sindh government to present his CNIC before handing him his official vehicle?" asked Ali.

To this, Ramzan responded that a few vice-chairmen tried to play politics over the issue. The CNICs were asked only from those members who were not present in the ceremony and had sent someone else to receive their cars. These cars, he said, will help the elected members move around in their districts easily.

In the next phase, he said that the elected chairmen will also be given cars. However, Central DMC Chairman Rehan Hashmi said that no elected chairman of the MQM would take any car from the Sindh government. This is their party's uniform policy, he claimed.

In a response to this, Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar said that they have already told the Sindh government two months back for fire tenders and machinery to clean the city instead of cars for their personal use. The current snorkels that the KMC has, he said, are useless. “We don’t want cars but to solve the issues of public,” said the mayor, requesting all the elected local government members to return the cars to the Sindh government.



Meanwhile, Ramzan said that in the funds allocated for these cars not even a single snorkel could be purchased. He pointed out that earlier the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the MQM themselves used to demand cars and now when they have been provided them, they have started playing politics.