KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and local Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leadership on Tuesday conveyed to Sindh Governor Imran Ismail their unhappiness over “ignoring” them in the appointment of the new Karachi administrator.

It was Governor Ismail who in September while ignoring the MQM-P protest had declared that appointment of senior bureaucrat Iftikhar Shallwani as city’s administrator was a consensus decision of all stakeholders.

However, it appears that no consultations took place this time when the Sindh government removed Mr Shallwani and posted Laeeq Ahmed as the new city administrator.

The issue was raised by a high-level MQM-P delegation headed by party convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and comprising deputy conveners Kanwar Naveed Jameel and former mayor Wasim Akhtar during a meeting with the Sindh governor here. PTI leaders Haleem Adil Sheikh and Khurram Sher Zaman were also present in the meeting.

A statement released from Governor House said that both the parties expressed their concerns over not including them in the consultation process for appointment of the administrator of Karachi.

It said that the meeting participants discussed the Karachi package, pace of development works being carried out by the federal government in the city and other matters.

“The Muttahida leaders expressed their reservations over the delay in implementation of the Karachi package as well as not including it in the apex committee’s consultations,” said the statement.

While the MQM-P did not release a statement regarding the meeting, a source told Dawn that the party was unhappy over ignoring it in two recent high-level meetings that discussed the Rs1.1 trillion Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP) that Prime Minister Imran Khan had unveiled over three months ago.

The governor told them that development schemes for Karachi were devised and approved after due consultation with all stakeholders and with the execution of the Karachi package, the city’s main issues would be resolved and Karachiites would have a better environment.

It was for the second time in recent weeks that the MQM-P raised the issue of Karachi package. First, Federal Minister for IT and Telecom Aminul Haque had brought the matter to PM Khan’s attention at a meeting of the federal cabinet that the KTP was moving at a snail’s pace. He also complained that the party was not invited to high-level meetings to discuss Karachi package in which senior military leadership also participated. The PM had assured him that the MQM-P would be taken on board in future meetings.

Meanwhile, Governor Ismail told the MQM-P delegation that people had high hopes with the prime minister and the federal government was taking every possible step for socioeconomic uplift of the nation.

He said that the prime minister was pursuing his vision of carrying out development throughout the country and the federal government wanted to take all parties along.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2020