HYDERABAD: As the district council passed the Rs2.38 billion surplus budget of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) on Tuesday, Hyderabad Mayor Syed Tayyab Hussain was repeatedly asked by members of his own party — the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan — to purge his administration of ‘corrupt officials’.

Members from both sides of the aisle — the ruling MQM-P and opposition Pakistan Peoples Party — took part in the budget debate and the mayor had to listen to their hard-hitting speeches.

The elected council passed its first budget for the financial year 2017-18. The Rs2.38bn surplus budget was presented by the mayor on Monday.

Council approves Rs2.38bn surplus budget for 2017-18

Later, the mayor adjourned the council session sine die.

Deputy Mayor Sohail Mushahdi, however, remained conspicuous by his absence during the presentation and passage of the budget.

Though MQM-P’s members congratulated the mayor for presenting his first budget, they urged him to purge the HMC of corrupt officers and withdraw “unrealistic” allocations like renovation of the HMC’s building in favour of more important projects.

They said as long as powers were not delegated to the mayor under Article 140-A of the Constitution he would keep lifting garbage alone.

“It is in fact officers who commit corruption and we get the blame,” said council member Salahuddin, a former member of the National Assembly from Hyderabad.

He wondered how targets of increased fees, rents and taxes as mentioned in the budget would be met because those fixed earlier remained unmet.

“We know what amount is paid on which table [as bribe] in the HMC,” he said. “Targets could not be achieved with this corrupt lot of officers. There are leakages in taxes and if financial discipline is ensured there would have been no need to look towards the Sindh or federal governments for resources because the HMC has the potential to improve things out of its own funds.

“But this will happen when [the] corrupt are shown the door. We can attribute failings to political reasons but we must concede internal failure too,” he said.

Referring to unnamed officers working in the HMC since long, he said: “These officers are daydreaming if they think they can fail us [MQM-P],” adding that the Sindh Local Government Act 2013 was clearly in conflict with Article 140-A.

Interestingly, the mayor seemed totally unaware of the fact that it was Article 140-A of the Constitution which ensured autonomy of local government as he confidently kept interrupting Salahuddin and Mohammad Ali Gohar that it was Article 190 and not 140-A which they should refer to in their speeches.

Haroon Sanbhri seconded Salahuddin and urged the mayor to take strict action against such officials whose presence affected his performance. He said that there were serious anomalies in the award of contracts.

Pervez Yusuf, also a former MNA, pointed out that the HMC officers were not ready to give a patient hearing to the chairmen of different union committees for their problems.

He said that the allocation of Rs100m for roads was meagre and should be increased. He added that the members from both MQM and PPP should demand a special package for Hyderabad.

While Naseemul Sahar pressed for raising Rs130m funds for the HMC’s renovation and demand a beautification programme, Nadeem Siraj and Zubair Siddiqui demanded that same allocations be cut realistically and diverted to more important sectors like roads and sewerage.

Arsalan Saleem expressed surprise as to where the Rs30m per month grant from the Sindh government was spent. He was critical of allocations for graveyards and Eidgahs as compared to other funds.

Syed Umair Ali drew attention of the chair towards allocation of funds for uplift of Qilla stadium although the work in question was already completed by MPA Ayesha Aftab through her funds.

Religious minorities’ members expressed dissatisfaction relating to allocation of funds for their communities.

Romas Bhatti said that Rs2.5m allocation for works in minorities’ colonies should be reasonably increased. He deplored the fact that their graveyards were in shabby condition.

He was backed by Raja Mahaveer, who regretted that refuse vans dumped garbage in the same graveyards.

Manthar Jatoi told the house that the HMC got Rs360m annually from the Sindh government but its performance was not up to the mark. He said Qasimabad’s municipal committee purchased its own machinery. He said that the HMC with more funds was blaming the Sindh government.

Opposition leader Pasha Qazi observed that members should show etiquette and avoid passing remarks against women.

He cautioned the mayor to be aware of “more loyal than the king type of people in the HMC”. He said that the silence of the PPP members should not be misconstrued as weakness.

Published in Dawn, August 2nd, 2017