MQM/Altaf Hussain is trying to disown the statements made by City Nazim Karachi Mustafa Kamal at a city meeting against PPP the other day. Mustafa Kamal had managed city affairs relatively well as of yet, but now PPP also wants its share. Mustafa Kamal dissed them harshly recently, to which Altaf Hussain was quoted as saying that these are his own views and MQM does not endorse them.
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KARACHI has always been a difficult city to govern. There are so many claimants to its soul and body. And anybody who is assigned to manage its affairs has always been in the hot soup while trying or failing to cater to the demands of political parties, mafias, interest groups and other stakeholders.
But since the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) took over the reins of power to control and rule Karachi, it has successfully managed to sideline all other claimants. For the last five years they have proved themselves to be undisputed lord of the fate and destiny of the city and master-owner of all its moveable and immoveable assets. Their sway was complete and comprehensive and their writ was unchallenged.
It was, however, after February 18, 2008 elections that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) emerged as a single largest political force in Sindh and soon laid its claim for a share in the control and management of metropolis and some of the lucrative departments of the Karachi city government.
City govts’ dilemma
Expressing their dissatisfaction over the prevailing local government system which leaves the provincial governments with minimum controls over the city and district governments, the PPP leadership immediately brought a law stripping the City Nazim of his managerial control over the two crucial departments - the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and the Karachi Building Control Authority.
It is a dilemma that while the PPP and MQM are coalition partners in the provincial government, they have developed rifts over the control of city governments in Karachi and Hyderabad. The estrangement between the two continues to hamper the smooth functioning of the respective city governments. But the young mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal is not willing to give up his fight for the city government’s claim to rule and manage Karachi.
Presenting his Rs37,142.62 million city government budget for the year 2008-09 last week, Mustafa Kamal boasted of an increase of Rs1,512.55 million over the previous year, “despite a decrease of Rs943.178 million from the funds to be received from the Sindh government.”
Announcing an increase of 26 per cent in allocation for education and 9.6 per cent for health sectors besides an increase of 20 per cent in the salaries of city government employees, Mustafa Kamal vowed to overcome deficits by increasing revenue generation and decreasing expenditure on non-development projects.
Assertive and arrogant as he is, Mustafa Kamal refused to budge in the face of demand of the opposition for allocation of funds to 178 union councils of the city. The opposition which later boycotted the budget session of the City council session claimed that no allocation was made for union councils in 2008-09 budget while the allocations made in 2007-08 budget were never released.
Row over funds
Mustafa Kamal said, “legally the city government is not bound to provide funds directly to the union councils.” He, however, conceded that a system for providing money directly to union councils was introduced by former Nazim Niamatullah Khan in his budget. “He had to do that because he had been threatened by the opposition, who said that they would not allow the budget to be passed unless they were given money”, said Mustafa adding that "Niamatullah Khan did not have the majority in the House and had to concede to opposition’s demand. The MQM leadership will not do any such thing. We have a clear majority. I am not going to hand over public money to these non-serious people," said Mustafa.
The City Council session while approving the budget through a majority resolution also demanded the return of the KWSB to the city government and presentation of its budget before the council. But the Rs15.717 billion budget of the KWSB was presented and approved a day earlier by the provincial local government minister, Agha Siraj Durrani. While presenting the budget, the officials of the KWSB reminded the city government of Mustafa to arrange the money for the payment of salaries to some 6,000 employees which had been inducted in the KWSB only days before the February elections.
This on-going rift between PPP and MQM over control of Karachi is not likely to end in near future. It is, actually, history repeating itself. During the mayorship of Niamatullah Khan it was the MQM which had vehemently opposed the control of City government over the KWSB. Again it were MQM’s opposition members in City Council who compelled Niamatullah Khan to allocate money for union councils. Is it not a game of reverse fortunes?