KARACHI: Declaring that the “seven million” inhabitants of
Karachi had been “missing” from the results of the census, Pak Sarzameen
Party chairman Mustafa Kamal on Sunday accused the ruling Pakistan
Peoples Party and its chief minister of “playing a dangerous game” on
people’s count as only the population of the city’s urban areas was
shown less.
Speaking at a big public meeting held here on
the Liaquatabad flyover, Mr Kamal pleaded the case of Karachi — whose
population has been shown over 16 million in the provisional census
results — and presented solutions of the multiple crises the megalopolis
was facing.
A large number of PSP workers and
supporters, including women and children, attended what many described
as a show of strength in a stronghold of its nemesis Muttahida Qaumi
Movement-Pakistan, which held a big public meeting on the same flyover
early last month.
Kamal warns the chief minister against ‘playing a dangerous game’ over census
By talking about the numerous problems of Karachi and
staging an event in a traditional Urdu-speaking neighbourhood, Mr Kamal
also gave a message to his detractors that he would no longer allow them
to play their “Mohajir card”.
It was the party’s first public meeting after an
establishment-sponsored alliance between the PSP and the MQM-P
unravelled in November.
Ever since, each party is
apparently in a race to present itself as the true representatives of
the people of urban Sindh, as the MQM-P had staged a public meeting in
Hyderabad and now the PSP showed that it was also a power to reckon
with.
On Sunday, carrying the national flag and shouting
slogans, PSP workers and supporters reached the venue in the form of
rallies from their respective areas.
Speaking on the
occasion, Mr Kamal strongly reacted to a recent statement of Sindh Chief
Minister Murad Ali Shah in which he said the total population of
Karachi in the census was 16 million and in view of this figure the
total requirement of water in the city was not more than 800 million
gallons daily.
“By showing less population, chief
minister of Sindh is conspiring against the people of Karachi to deprive
them of the basic need of water,” Mr Kamal said. “Today, I have to
plead and win the case of the people of Karachi whose generations are
being left in the lurch.”
Rejecting the census results,
he said that why the CM was bent on proving Karachi’s figures of the
census correct. He said the “missing seven million” people in Karachi
population be counted.
He said the people of Karachi had
to decide by themselves that what kind of struggle they wanted for their
rights. “We will never go against the state,” he added.
He
demanded the authorities that a “one-time amnesty” be given to the
“misled youths” of Karachi to bring them into the national mainstream.
Mr
Kamal, who is a staunch critic of Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar and his
party, demanded that all civic bodies working in the metropolis be given
under the administrative control of the city mayor. However, he added
that it must be ensured that the mayor’s existing powers must be used in
a judicious manner.
He also demanded that a “Karachi Metropolitan Police” be formed under the control of the mayor.
The
former Karachi mayor also demanded of the authorities that the people
of Karachi be allowed to install street barriers to stop increasing
incidents of street crimes in their localities.
He was critical of the performance of the K-Electric and alleged that it had looted Rs100 billion from the people of Karachi.
He
also spoke on what he called the miserable situation of public sector
hospitals, government schools and colleges, the city’s transport system
and garbage disposal.
He demanded that the Karachi Master Plan department be separated from the Sindh Building Control Authority forthwith.
Demanding
due share in government jobs for Karachi’s youth, he called upon the
authorities to issue the provincial finance commission award forthwith.