HYDERABAD: Lawmakers of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have accused the Sindh government of pursuing anti-Hyderabad policies and usurping resources of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC).

They said that previously deductions were made in the share of octroi zila tax (OZT) and now HMC’s properties were being taken over.

Speaking at a joint press conference at the party’s office on Monday, Sabir Kaimkhani, Salahuddin, Rashid Khilji, Nadeem Siddiqui and Nasir Qureshi said that the Sindh Public Service Commission’s secretariat had been constructed on a plot owned by the HMC and now Sindh government was ‘occupying’ a plot adjacent to it.

They said that fee under ‘road cutting’ was recovered by the local bodies department, but in Hyderabad, it was being received by the district administration.

They said the plots reserved for cattle pens (piri) in Hala Naka and bus terminal had been occupied by the central jail administration, which had been a source of income for the HMC.

They said the court had passed an order against the plot’s occupation, but the Sindh government had not given it up yet. The HMC should be paid Rs1 billion cost of damages borne by it due to loss in income through utilisation of the plot for cattle pens. They said Rani Bagh’s new Eidgah was rebuilt by the district government under the MQM-P’s leadership, but it had been included in the Municipal Committee of Qasimabad.

They said Hasrat Mohani Library, municipal school and the ground in Hussainabad had also been occupied. They added that power and resources had been with the provincial government for the past 12 years after passage of 18th Amendment, but the Sindh government failed to address public issues.

They said safe drinking water was not available in the city and the Sindh government and Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) were not complying with the directives of the apex court’s commission on water and sanitation. They said that non-resident policemen had been posted in Hyderabad who were busy in minting money. They demanded that policemen with Hyderabad district’s domicile should be posted as SHOs there.

They alleged that fake domiciles were issued in Sindh under the patronage of the provincial government. They said the ongoing inquiry must disclose that how many people of Hyderabad and Karachi were also affected and how many people from other districts were given jobs in their place. Jobs were not evenly distributed in rural and urban centres, they observed.

They said that when Khawaja Izharul Hassan had approached judiciary on fake domicile issue, a hue and cry was raised, but his fears proved correct. They urged the chief justice of Pakistan to order a judicial inquiry headed by a sitting high court judge to fix the responsibility for issuing fake domiciles.

They claimed that MQM-P parliamentarians had also donated their salaries in corona relief fund of Rs18bn, but nobody knew where those funds had gone. They said people still needed rations and were running from pillar to post for relief goods.

The MQM-P leaders said corruption had reached its zenith in the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco). They said the MQM-P had been opposing power theft as it was increasing deficit in the funds of Hesco, but power utility had failed to control the crime. They said right from the Hesco chief executive to his subordinate staff, all had made lives of people miserable.

They said that inflated bills were being issued and transformers were not changed unless thousands of rupees were paid by consumers. They said Hesco under a planned conspiracy was instigating general public against the federal government.

They said load-shedding hours had increased since Eid, which was not understandable as business centres in the evening remained closed.

They warned Hesco to mend its ways failing which consumers would take to the streets against it. They said that in the past two years, no transfers were seen in the Hesco management.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2020