Sigh of relief: Institutions celebrate 'Salvation Day' as LG reps leave office

Officers say former mayor's performance has been extremely disappointing

KARACHI:

The Sindh government dissolved the province's local government bodies on Monday upon the completion of their four-year constitutional term. As a result, Wasim Akhtar, who was dubbed 'the weakest mayor' in Karachi's local government history, has also gone home. Although the mayor had very few powers and resources at his disposal, his performance within the institutions available to him had been very disappointing.

According to sources, officers, employees, and citizens are happy because of Wasim Akhtar's departure, with many institutions celebrating a 'Salvation Day' with the end of his tenure.

Even though the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government had paralysed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the mayor had over a dozen institutions running under him which he could fix during his tenure. Instead, he appointed his favourite officers whose incompetency failed to bring any improvements.

The institutions that functioned under Wasim Akhtar included the Parks and Horticulture Department, the Veterinary Department, Katchi Abadi and Land Department, the Engineering Department, Sports and Culture Department, Municipal Services, and the City Institute of Image Management, among several others.

Sources said that throughout Wasim Akhtar's four-year tenure, irregularities were on a rise in most of the institutions. What is more, Municipal Commissioner Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rehman fully supported the Karachi Mayor and his team and did not play the role of a dutiful officer at any stage.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, the All Pakistan Local Government Workers Federation Chairman Syed Zulfiqar Shah said that a 'Salvation Day' and 'Thanks Day' was celebrated by employees upon the departure of the local bodies' representatives.

"The local bodies' representatives failed to deliver anything to the citizens and employees," he said. "Since the Sindh government did not give them enough powers, unions stood by the representatives at every stage. But instead of improving the institutions that were available to these local bodies' representatives, they did nothing."

Commenting on Wasim Akhtar's performance, Syed Zulfiqar Shah said during his tenure, citizens were deprived of basic facilities and pensioners could not get their legitimate rights either.

"There is no doubt that the Sindh government snatched most of the powers from Wasim Akhtar that former urban nazims enjoyed, but he was in charge of the Land Department, the Katchi Abadi Department, the Veterinary Department, the Local Tax Department, Charged Parking and the Food Quality Department, which could have been improved through planning and billions of rupees of revenue could have been increased," he said.

According to Shah, a marine tax could have been imposed under the law, but unfortunately, the elected local bodies' representatives did not make any improvement in these departments. In this context, the mayor of Karachi and his team showed a lack of vision and a lukewarm attitude towards their responsibilities.

An official of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that during Wasim Akhtar's tenure, the basic rules of transfer and posting were severely ignored and non-technical and inexperienced officers were appointed to technical posts in various institutions that functioned under his control. These include Karachi Zoo, Safari Park, Veterinary Department, the City Institute of Image Management, Food Laboratory, Parks and Horticulture, Finance Department, and the State Department.

Expressing his frustration with the situation in Karachi, Muhammad Naveed, a resident of the city, said that if Mayor Wasim Akhtar had acted sincerely despite limited resources, the citizens of Karachi would have stood with him and he would not have been criticised in this manner.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced the schedule for the fresh delimitation of constituencies for the local government elections. According to a notification issued on Monday by the ECP, the delimitation committees would prepare the preliminary lists from September 9 to 22.