Laying blame: MQM lashes out at Sindh government

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon responds to allegations.

KARACHI: Leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) have asked Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah and local government minister Sharjeel Memon to resign over the timber market incident. "Over 90 per cent of the damage occurred due to their negligence. Will the chief minister and Sharjeel Memon resign?" questioned MNA Farooq Sattar on Sunday. He was addressing a press conference on the fire incident at Timber market at the Khursheed Begum Secretariat.

The MQM also demanded that shopkeepers and owners be compensated for their loss. "Karachi's infrastructure has been destroyed," said Rabita Committee incharge Qamar Mansoor. "During our tenure in the local government, we equipped the fire department and provided snorkels and fire engines," he added.



The MQM leader said that the Sindh government had disappointed the people by not arriving on the scene and not consoling those who lost their property and goods. "The ministers of Sindh kept sleeping while Karachi burnt," said Mansoor. Meanwhile, Sattar said that they had tried to contact Sharjeel Memon but his phone was off.

The government responds

The Sindh government has constituted a two-member committee to investigate the timber market fire tragedy. The provincial government will compensate losses after the report, said the Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon. He was addressing a press conference regarding the fire tragedy at the Karachi Commissioner House on Sunday.

"It will be injustice with the people of Karachi to make the tragedy into a political issue," said Memon. According to the minister, the investigation committee will comprise Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui and Karachi Administrator Rauf Akhtar Farooqi.

The information minister said that the fire brigade staff was informed about the fire at 1:19am, adding the fire tenders reached the spot within minutes. The minister said that around 600,000 gallons of water was provided.

"All allegations leveled by the MQM are baseless," he claimed. "We believe in practical politics, not in photo sessions only," he said. Admitting to the hurdles in addressing issues in the local government department, he said it was due to the ghost employees of the department, adding that most of the staff of the KMC, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and other departments belonged to the MQM.

"There are other employees too who live in South Africa, Dubai and other countries but are paid by these departments," he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2014.