Karachi Mayor wants DMCs abolished

Akhtar urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nasir to enhance the powers of the mayor of the city

KARACHI: Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar demanded Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief Justice of Pakistan, Sindh chief minister (CM) and Sindh minister for local government to review Sindh Local Government Ordinance (SLGO) 2013 and make amendments in it through the consensus of all stakeholders, adding that the DMCs should be abolished and KMC be made their supervisory body.

He addressed a press conference at old Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) building on Saturday along with chairmen of districts municipal corporation (DMCs) and elected members of the City Council. Akhtar said that CM Syed Murad Ali Shah should be serious in making amendments in SLGO-2013 which can prove beneficial for the whole province.

Akhtar urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nasir to expedite the petition seeking to enhance the powers of the mayor of the city.  According to Akhtar, the present SLGO-2013 serves political interests of few and it must be reviewed by the Sindh Assembly. He added that the CM must take the initiative as his party has the majority in the house.



Regarding the performance of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB), Akhtar said that it was below par. "It was not our job to lift offal and garbage left on roads," he said and explained that after the SLGO, 2013, the garbage collection function had been taken away from the KMC.

According to him the landfill sites, where the animal remains were being dumped, were too far away and transportation took quite a lot of time during the cleaning operations.  He demanded that resources allocated to the city should reflect the population shown by the census.

He also demanded that SSWMB be audited as the expenses incurred by them were far higher than the expenses incurred by DMC to lift offal during Eidul Azha. He also stressed that all the civic work should be done by the KMC. "A project director performs duties which are supposed to be done by the mayor ," he said.

In District Central alone, more than 1 million animals were sacrificed during Eidul Azha. He said that in District Central the price of lifting offal was Rs70 while the cost charged by SSWMB was Rs500 to collect offal of a goat and Rs1,300 for a cow.