www.punjabics.com

Home

Treasury apologises for ethnic remark

By Shahid Husain
Karachi

The treasury benches of the City Council on Thursday apologised on a remark made by the leader of the house on Wednesday that was loaded with ethnicity and racialism, thereby easing tension in the house.

Leader of the House Asif Siddiqui who generated considerable heat when he remarked on Wednesday that opposition members were “not citizens of Karachi” was pretty composed on Thursday and said that he was sorry for his remark.

Opposition members who as a mark of protest had sat on the floor instead of their benches were relaxed after the apology and got seated on their benches. But their gesture definitely disturbed City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil who pointed out that she was also the chairperson of “ethics committee” and it was her endeavour to treat all the members equally. She regretted that despite her stance some members misbehaved in the house and didn’t listen to her. 

“This is a forum where problems pertaining to the people of Karachi are resolved,” she said. “May be members of this forum will graduate to provincial and national assembly,” she said.

Referring to the massive power breakdown in Karachi on Wednesday, Abdul Jalil of the treasury benches said that the City Council should earnestly pursue the resolution it passed a couple of weeks ago regarding nationalisation of the ailing Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).

The house passed a resolution with majority vote on charged parking on three roads in Saddar in the wake of construction of first multi-storey parking plaza in the mega city. The parking plaza has a capacity to park 700 cars and 500 motorcycles. 

Nadeem Hashmi of the treasury benches pointed out that irregular parking in the city was creating immense problems to commuters and pedestrians. He said that charged parking already exists on six roads in the city. Asked by Leader of Opposition Saeed Ghani about the rates, Nadeem Hashmi said that they had not been finalised as yet but would be “economical”. Ghani said that it was strange that charged parking was being introduced in an area where a parking plaza had been built and requested necessary amendments in the resolution. He said that parking on roads should be banned in an area where the parking plaza had been constructed. 

Masood Hashmi of the treasury benches said that 600-700 cars were registered in the city daily adding double parking should not be allowed. He said that it was the job of traffic police to ensure proper flow of traffic. He suggested parking fee for roads should be enhanced while rates at the parking plaza should be nominal. Shamim Wasi of the opposition benches said that the city should have several parking plazas and there should also be a shuttle service. Sarwat Ali of treasury benches said that the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) should ensure its by-laws were implemented and buildings should have parking spaces. 

The City Council also approved a resolution about raise in levy on huts at Hawkesbay to Rs160 per sq yard. The council requested the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) to redraw the layout plan of Hawkesbay.

Siddiqui said that multinationals and other big companies own as many as 245 huts at Hawkesbay and they hardly pay 600 to 1200 rupees annually that was insufficient. 

Ghani pointed out that there were some factual mistakes in the resolution which needs to be corrected. Jalil got the controversial paragraphs expunged from the resolution. The house was adjourned for half an hour after Ramzan Awan of the opposition benches pointed out that the house lacked quorum.