‘Clean Karachi Campaign’ gets stuck in limbo

KARACHI: The ‘Clean Karachi Campaign’ which the Muttahida Qaumi Movement launched on Tuesday is stuck in limbo after the provincial government did not give it a go-ahead sign.

The MQM had planned to kick-start their campaign today, but all of the garbage trucks the city owns are already in use by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation—in a cleanliness drive which it claims has been going on in the city for over a month now.

The local government minister ordered all of the 90 garbage trucks the city owns to line up at Sea View early Morning on Thursday.

The local government minister Jam Khan Shoro said that the ministry was never contacted for a permit. “The MQM should stop playing politics over government machinery. Nominated mayor Waseem Akhtar needs a doctor for his mental treatment.”

'Clean Karachi Campaign' must go on

MQM nominated mayor Waseem Akhtar said that the provincial government does not want Karachiites to breathe a sigh of relief. “We will still continue to clean Karachi, even if we do it alone.”

Armed with brooms, Akhtar, with several volunteers reached Numaish. They picked garbage and swept the roads clean.

The campaign is going on in seven different localities of the city.

A day after MQM health minister Dr Sagheer Ahmed resigned from the party calling it “corrupt and a RAW agent” Dr Farooq Sattar launched the Clean Karachi Campaign—a drive which they said would rid the city of garbage and other ‘evils’.

Instead of directly responding to criticism and allegations by dissident party leader Dr Sagheer Ahmed the previous day, MQM leader Dr Farooq Sattar relied on innuendos during the press conference when asked to comment on latest developments.

"We are launching a cleanliness campaign from March 10 on the instructions of party chief Altaf Hussain," he said, adding that party workers, councilors, chairmen and lawmakers would participate in the "I own Karachi" campaign.

Dr Sattar said that, apart from removing garbage, the campaign would also focus on covering manholes and plant trees in the city. He said a similar campaign would be launched in Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas within a few days.

The campaign was not taken sportingly by Jam Khan Shoro who claimed that the KMC was already cleaning the city, and MQM wanted to take credit for something that the Pakistan People’s Party had initiated.