KARACHI: Mayor Murtaza Wahab on Sunday claimed to have increased the revenue generation of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) by 100 per cent in less than a year.

Speaking at a press conference to recount the major achievements of the elected set-up that had completed one year last month, he said: “Within a year we generated Rs2.8 billion compared to Rs1.2bn last year.”

He said that the KMC did not impose any new tax and this was made possible only through political will and “honest policies”.

Accompanied by Deputy Mayor Salman Murad, he said Karachi was always neglected by the federal government. Karachi owned everyone, but nobody owned this city, he added.

He said that the people of Karachi aldo needed to take responsibility of the city’s issues and collaborate to work for their solutions as it could not be done by one single person.

Referring to the city’s problems, he said that he was a Karachiite himself and wanted to work on the city’s issues like transport, sewerage, garbage, lack of green areas, etc. However, there were “various factors” and “parties with vested interests” which intervened in the effective implementation of laws and policies, he added.

Referring to a number of projects, he rejected the impression that the Sindh government of the PPP did not allocate funds for Karachi development in its budget for financial year 2024-25.

“Those who are claiming that nothing has been set aside for Karachi in the budget are actual doing the politics of vested interests,” he said.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2024