The demand was made by M Zubair Motiwala, Chairman Businessmen Group in KCCI, and Muhammad Idrees, president KCCI, in their statement issued on Wednesday. The top business leaders expressed their reservations over the sluggish response and remedial measures taken by the city administration and provincial government to deal with calamity-like situation emerged after the heavy rainfalls in the city.
Zubair Motiwala maintained that the industrial hub and commercial capital of Pakistan was contributing 54 percent to country’s total exports, 65 percent to national exchequer and 95 percent to the total provincial taxes and levies was faced with many civic problems which included dilapidated infrastructure.
He invited Prime Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Administrator Karachi Barrister Murtaza Wahab to visit KCCI for finding short-term and long-term solutions of Karachi, whenever hit by heavy rains.
K-Electric and Sui Southern Gas Company Limited should extend the last dates to pay bills to provide some respite to Karachiites. Relief should be announced on provincial taxes to compensate for immense losses due to damages caused by the rains, he demanded.
Muhammad Idrees pointed out that moderate rain in the city caused tripping of hundreds of KE feeders leading long outages of electricity.
“It is so unfortunate that the rain water conduits have been let to be encroached by slums and builders, also in elite areas of the city,” he said, adding that there was damaged or inefficient sewerage network.