Karachi Mayor Akhtar suspends Mustafa Kamal as Project Director Garbage ‘over playing politics’ – Pakistan

Less than 24 hours after "designating" former mayor Mustafa Kamal as "Project Garbage Director on a voluntary basis" to clean the city, Mayor Karachi Wasim Akhtar suspended the head of Pak Pakzazaen Party (PSP) on Tuesday.

"I named him thinking that he sincerely wanted to solve the city's problems. However, after the press conference he held last night, it is clear that Kamal just wants to play politics," Akhtar said during a media talk.

"I am hereby suspending Kamal from the position I had given him yesterday."

Yesterday morning, continuing an ongoing war of words on the operation of the municipal department of Karachi with the mayor, Kamal held a press conference in which he said he was willing to work to get rid of the city's garbage and clean up the City in three months. .

Responding to the complaint, Akhtar had issued an order in the afternoon and appointed Kamal the Director of the Garbage Project "on a voluntary basis."

Later in the evening, Kamal announced that he had accepted the mayor's offer and said he would work 24 hours and inform the mayor even after midnight since "he is my boss now."

However, at the same time, the PSP chief said that by issuing this order, the mayor, who belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi-Pakistan Movement (MQM-P), had acknowledged his failure and the MQM should ask him to resign since there was no justification left for him to continue in office.

Addressing the press today, Akhtar said: "He (Kamal) had said in his press conference that he wanted to work for Karachi and take over the municipal duties that the mayor currently has.

"In good faith, I responded positively to his request, leaving aside all the differences we had in the past. Everything he has said about me and about me on a personal and professional level is recorded; in spite of all that I said that I will let this man take the position, for the sake of the people of Karachi.

"But my sincerity was misused," Akhtar claimed.

"It was given the color of politics. You (Kamal) used my movement to play politics; you made a rally, gathered the workers of your party, called the media and started saying those same vile things you had said about me before. This shows that you are not sincere, it means that all you wanted to do was play politics.

"What should have happened was that you should have come to the central office of the municipal works department and formally entered there. You should have shared your 90-day plan and the formula you have to clean Karachi in 90 days with us so that everyone We could have proceeded seriously.

"Instead, you offered a press conference and tried to act as if they had granted you all the powers of the mayor's office; you began to act as if the districts had been under your command. That is not the case, they made you a garbage project manager and you had to work under the mayor's office to clean up this city, "said the mayor, responding to the statements made yesterday at the Kamal press conference, where he said he would be responsible for the municipal services of the 130 union committees and four corporations municipal districts controlled by the MQM-P.

"You are not a member of the National Responsibility Office and can call the records and financial files of the department, you do not have that authority.

"In light of all this, today I made the decision to suspend Kamal from the position they gave him yesterday," the mayor concluded.

& # 39; Not playing politics & # 39;

In response to Akhtar's accusations at a press conference held today, Kamal said: "If I were playing politics, I would not have called a man, who is a member of my opposite party, my boss in front of the whole world."

Kamal said he had received calls from many non-governmental organizations that offered to help him, but that he had refused because he "wanted to put the state machinery into operation."

He also dismissed Akhtar's argument that Kamal should have informed the mayor's office and shared his plan.

"This city has become a ruin because you are still sitting in your office," said the former mayor.

"Current resources and authority [granted to the mayor] they are enough to manage the city, "Kamal added. He repeated his" offer "to clean the city within three months if he was granted the authority that the mayor possessed.

The former mayor of Karachi also addressed Prime Minister Imran Khan and said: "Many high-ranking politicians have been sent to jail for corruption, why don't they realize the corrupt practices that are taking place just below Of their noses, who are ruining their jugular vein in the country?