City Nazim Mustafa Kamal is no longer the Chairman of the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) and there is no way he can declare the orders of the Sindh government illegal, Sindh Local Government (LG) Minister Aga Siraj Durrani told The News.

He was asked about his reaction to the city nazim’s comments about how all the functions of the KBCA, post-April 29, were illegal. Durrani said it was my advice to the city Nazim to remain within his limits of the city government. He had nothing to do with the orders of the Sindh government.

The minister said he was still the Chairman of the KBCA and KWSB and these two were independent authorities declared by the Sindh government. Durrani said he was not the chief minister of the province and he was only the mayor/Nazim of Karachi and as a moral duty Durrani claimed that he should refrain from interfering in the matters of the Sindh government.

The minister was of the view that he should remember the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) are the coalition partners in the Sindh government and there was a committee where all such issues are resolved and said instead of issuing orders of the Sindh government illegal he should refer all the matters to the committee.

The minister said now the PPP Co-Chairman, Asif Ali Zardari, was playing a vital role in bringing close both the parties and this had so far been proved by the party.

When asked that the City Nazim, Syed Mustafa Kamal, still claims that the KBCA will continue to charge betterment charges from the builders. He said this was an order of the Sindh government and said he had announced this only for the construction taking place in outskirts of Karachi.

Durrani said this was done on the demand of the builders as ultimately they would charge this money from the masses and said the PPP had come to power for providing relief to the common people.

The minister said the Sindh government had only provided relief of 50 per cent and in down town of Karachi there was still a betterment tax.

To another question Durrani said Manzoor Qadir was till the Chief Controller of KBCA and Ghulam Arif was MD of KWSB and said the city Nazim had no powers to declare orders of the Sindh government illegal.

The minister was of the view that salary drawn by the city Nazim also comes from the Sindh government and said we had very good cordial relations at the Sindh government level with the MQM ministers.

By Fasahat Mohiuddin The News

Bookmark with:

More from Sindh