KARACHI - Mayor Wasim Akhtar laid stress on strong municipal system to strength democracy.
“Over the world municipal system was only way to solve public problems and making democracy strong, but, our past rulers never bother to strengthen local government institutions,” he said while talking to a delegation of elected representatives from Abbottabad on Saturday.
Tehsil Nazim Muhammad Ishaq Zikriya led the visitor to the meeting with Akhtar. The Karachi mayor welcomed the delegation from KP and said that such visit would help share expertise.
He said: “Feudal approach was the biggest hurdle in the progress of this country. MPA and MNAs have this job to do law making but real progress could not be made without transfer of powers and resources to local bodies. Everyone knew that the action against encroachments has been impartial in Karachi.”
Unfortunately, so-called champions of democracy did not want to hold local bodies elections and though elections were held on the directive of the Supreme Court, these primary institutions were made ineffective by withholding their financial and administrative powers. He said the 18th amendment was aimed at devolution of powers to grassroots but though powers transferred from centre to province but were never further shifted to lower like local governments.
He said like its size, the city of Karachi has lot of problems too and the federal and provincial governments taking no interest in solving them.
He warned that the city was going to have a big crisis of pot able water as the K-IV project did not looked completed even in next five years. He said circular railway project was dumped and we found the Prime Minister Imran Khan concerned on Karachi problems, but he would also face shortage of funds.
T Tehsil Nazim of Abbottabad Muhammad Ishaq Zikriya said the 2013 Act has made the local government system in Abbottabad powerful financially and administratively. Water and sewerage problems have also been solved due to this and the technology helped made our system strong.