Karachi: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah before leaving on his foreign trip on Saturday withdrew his own three-day deadline to the municipal agencies to clean the heaps of garbage from the city, stretching the task for months.
In the backdrop of civic complaints and absence of an elected municipal representative, Shah had ordered the commissioner of Karachi as well as the top management of the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) to clear the garbage from the uncountable dumping sites in the city.
However, the lack of resources, machinery and the manpower rendered the chief ministerial orders ineffective.
Shah, moved by sharp media criticism, took a escorted ride to different parts of the city to witness the cleanliness drive.
“I did give two to three months’ time line for cleaning the city, it was not the matter of days,” Shah told the media after his visits to the city.
“Karachi is a huge city of over 20 million people and it might take up to six months to clean the city but again I am not giving any deadline,” he quickly added to pre-empt future embarrassment.
Garbage heaps and overflowing sewerage water emitting foul smell and germs have been a common scene all across the city as the municipal institutions have not been working effectively for years. Even the municipalities do not have money to buy the fuel for the mechanical lifters. The sanitary workers also opt to go slow or not work at all as the civic organisations were not able to pay their salaries on time.
The local government elections were held in December last but the councillors and mayors were still not able to assume office because of tricky technical issues in the province.
Shah, who later left for Dubai, called on Asif Ali Zardari, the chief of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), to hold parleys about the much talked about extension in policing powers of the paramilitary Rangers, leading a years-long operation against outlaws alongside with local police.
The issue had become contentious between the PPP government in Sindh and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government in Islamabad.
Shah left for Dubai a day after military authorities put their weight behind the Rangers as Karachi corps commander Lieutenant General Naveed Mukhtar called on Shah to discuss the issue.
