RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman has accused the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of usurping his party’s mandate and robbing Karachi’s 35 million residents of their fundamental rights.

Speaking at the inauguration of a “model neighborhood” and newly built roads at Riffah-e-Aam Chowk, Malir Halt, he said the establishment had imposed people on the metropolis who knew nothing but corruption. Despite the lack of provincial funds, he said, JI-led towns had found ways to carry out infrastructure work on a self-help basis. “When we visited these areas during the local government elections, there were broken roads and craters everywhere. Today, paver blocks are being laid, sanitation systems have been improved, and civic amenities are expanding.”

Highlighting Karachi’s economic role, he added the megacity drives the national economy and contributes nearly half of the country’s total tax revenue. He lamented that some political parties had pushed the megacity to the brink of ruin.

He said the people of Karachi wanted a JI mayor, he said, because they believed the party would deliver even without powers. He added that JI would continue its struggle to secure formal powers for local bodies. On education, he said JI had repaired and renovated 73 of 150 dilapidated government schools in its nine towns.

JI Karachi head Monem Zafar Khan, who also spoke at the event, questioned the PPP’s 18-year rule in Sindh and asked why basic civic problems in Karachi remained unresolved. He criticized delays in major transit projects, saying the Green Line remained incomplete after five years, while University Road had been dug up for more than five and a half years because of the stalled BRT Red Line project.