Daily Times

It has been more than ten days since Barrister Murtaza Wahab, who is also the spokesperson of the PPP-led Sindh government, took over as Administrator of Karachi. In his first media briefing as the administrator, Wahab had said “I don’t make statements without doing my homework. Let me assess the situation first, then I will prepare a plan to address the issues and publicize it.”

After taking office, Wahab appeared to be busy visiting different areas of the city and holding emergency meetings, but despite the passage of ten days, the administrator is refraining from giving a clear plan of action. Wahab and his team preferred not to answer questions asked by the Daily Times.

Pakistan’s financial hub Karachi was ranked the seventh least liveable city in the world. Name a misery, and this South Asian megacity is plagued by it. Problems of the megacity are not new. Severely broken roads, heaps of garbage, stagnant sewage water, shortage of drinking water, the worst and most insignificant public transport, and footpaths and roadsides encroachment are few myriad examples of the devastating landscape of Karachi. After Wahab’s appointment as administrator, there was a variety of reactions, one from political opponents and critics of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the other from Karachi residents and civic experts.

Former youngest mayor and ex-deputy convener of MQM Dr. Farooq Sattar believes that there would be no special benefit in making Wahab an administrator unless the tenure of office was fixed. He termed the local body system of Karachi as powerless and ineffective and said the Sindh government was still not ready to give even this slightest authority to the elected representatives of the people. Dr. Farooq Sattar was of the view that Wahab will enjoy the same powers as he (Farooq Sattar), Mustafa Kamal, and Waseem Akhtar did during their tenures, but Wahab’s advantage will be his affiliation with the PPP and Sindh government.

Sattar advised Murtaza Wahab to take resources from Sindh and start work on some major issues like water supply, solid waste management, and infrastructure as the chiefs of various civic bodies, including Sindh Solid Waste Management Board, Karachi Water & Sewerage Board, and Sindh Building Control Authority, are under the Sindh Local Government Ministry and they are not directly accountable to the administrator or mayor.

Talking with Daily Times, a number of citizens expressed more expectations from Murtaza Wahab saying he will deliver better results as he has an edge of affiliation with the PPP and Sindh government. In the past, even the elected mayors of MQM and Jamaat-e-Islami have not been able to make the city an ideal or livable place despite having a full hold on the city and completing their tenures.