Post-reconciliation policy: City put through the wringer as Durrani put in charge
As the PPP and MQM are no longer on the same side, transfers are expected.
KARACHI:
The gloves are off. The Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement are no longer best of friends — at least ever since the MQM said it would be the ruling party's opposition. What is the first thing the PPP does? It puts their man in charge of the city government and the water board — the MQM's old stomping grounds.
"I will take action against officials found negligent in their duties," declared the PPP's Agha Siraj Durrani, after the chief minister announced he was running the show. "Hundreds of people are getting their salaries at their home without going to work." He wants an audit of city government spending and his first priority is to control the bribery system. It is a veritable slap in the face — what does he mean? That the MQM was not doing a good job?
To add salt to their wounds, Agha Siraj Durrani, who is after all the minister for local government, decided to move the furniture around. After the CM put him in charge of the City District Government Karachi till the local government elections are held, he transferred city officials who were appointed on the recommendation of the MQM. When the LG system came to its legal end in March last year, the PPP and MQM agreed as coalition partners to appoint city administrators in consensus. Now that there is no coalition, the PPP has transferred or is gearing up to transfer town administrators and executive district officers, who effectively run the city.
The ball was set rolling on Wednesday when the administrator of Baldia Town, Fozail Bukhari, who is said to be the brother of MQM MPA Shoaib Bukhari, was the first to be shown the door. Then came the packing orders for Gulshan-e-Iqbal administrator Raza Abbas Rizvi, who is the brother of MQM leader Hyder Abbas Rizvi. The administrator of Orangi Town, Qamarudin Shaikh, who had the additional charge as the administrator of all union councils in Karachi, has also been transferred.
Strangely though, no notification has been issued announcing that Durrani has been made the chairman of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board. Nonetheless, Durrani says he is in charge. Talking to the media, the minister said that he would now look after the water board's affairs as the chairman's seat had been empty since March 2010.
This is not the first time that the Sindh government has appointed Durrani the chairman of the KWSB. It happened when the MQM's Mustafa Kamal was city mayor. The fight grew so bad that the MQM had threatened to part ways with the government even then. A flurry of notifications appointing and then withdrawing him were made. Thoroughly confused reporters wondered who would come out on top.
For the PPP, though, this time around there is no debate. KWSB vice-chairman MPA Munawar Ali Abbasi, who also belongs to the ruling party, told The Express Tribune that Durrani is the sole person in charge of local government and thus the KWSB automatically comes under his control. "It was under the reconciliation policy that we preferred to give the chairmanship of the KWSB to our friends, but now the local government system is not in place, the minister can take over whenever he wants."
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2011.
The gloves are off. The Pakistan Peoples Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement are no longer best of friends — at least ever since the MQM said it would be the ruling party's opposition. What is the first thing the PPP does? It puts their man in charge of the city government and the water board — the MQM's old stomping grounds.
"I will take action against officials found negligent in their duties," declared the PPP's Agha Siraj Durrani, after the chief minister announced he was running the show. "Hundreds of people are getting their salaries at their home without going to work." He wants an audit of city government spending and his first priority is to control the bribery system. It is a veritable slap in the face — what does he mean? That the MQM was not doing a good job?
To add salt to their wounds, Agha Siraj Durrani, who is after all the minister for local government, decided to move the furniture around. After the CM put him in charge of the City District Government Karachi till the local government elections are held, he transferred city officials who were appointed on the recommendation of the MQM. When the LG system came to its legal end in March last year, the PPP and MQM agreed as coalition partners to appoint city administrators in consensus. Now that there is no coalition, the PPP has transferred or is gearing up to transfer town administrators and executive district officers, who effectively run the city.
The ball was set rolling on Wednesday when the administrator of Baldia Town, Fozail Bukhari, who is said to be the brother of MQM MPA Shoaib Bukhari, was the first to be shown the door. Then came the packing orders for Gulshan-e-Iqbal administrator Raza Abbas Rizvi, who is the brother of MQM leader Hyder Abbas Rizvi. The administrator of Orangi Town, Qamarudin Shaikh, who had the additional charge as the administrator of all union councils in Karachi, has also been transferred.
Strangely though, no notification has been issued announcing that Durrani has been made the chairman of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board. Nonetheless, Durrani says he is in charge. Talking to the media, the minister said that he would now look after the water board's affairs as the chairman's seat had been empty since March 2010.
This is not the first time that the Sindh government has appointed Durrani the chairman of the KWSB. It happened when the MQM's Mustafa Kamal was city mayor. The fight grew so bad that the MQM had threatened to part ways with the government even then. A flurry of notifications appointing and then withdrawing him were made. Thoroughly confused reporters wondered who would come out on top.
For the PPP, though, this time around there is no debate. KWSB vice-chairman MPA Munawar Ali Abbasi, who also belongs to the ruling party, told The Express Tribune that Durrani is the sole person in charge of local government and thus the KWSB automatically comes under his control. "It was under the reconciliation policy that we preferred to give the chairmanship of the KWSB to our friends, but now the local government system is not in place, the minister can take over whenever he wants."
Published in The Express Tribune, July 8th, 2011.