Waseem Akhtar suspends Mustafa Kamal as Karachi’s 'Project Director Garbage'

KARACHI: Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar on Tuesday suspended Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chairman Syed Mustafa Kamal as the city’s ‘Project Director Garbage’, mere hours after the former mayor was assigned the post to help clean up the metropolis.

Speaking to media earlier today, Akhtar said he had "suspended Mustafa Kamal from his post as Karachi's Project Director Garbage until further orders", less than 24 hours after Kamal was designated as Karachi Metropolitan Corporation's (KMC) 'Project Director Garbage' to rid the city of garbage in 90 days.

"Instead of coming to the office and [working], Mustafa Kamal is busy with political point scoring," a visibly enraged Akhtar said. 

“My sincerity was taken advantage of and used for politics. This means you [Mustafa Kamal] were not sincere in solving the problems of Karachi," he added. 

In a notification issued on Monday from the mayor's office, Kamal had been appointed as 'Project Director Garbage' on a voluntary basis as "he had shown his willingness to clean the city of Karachi within 90 days of time."

The MQM-P, PSP, and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) – the ruling party in Sindh province – have been engaged in a heated war of words and blame game over the administration's general failure in dealing with the disastrous aftermath of the recent spell of monsoon rains and the sad state of affairs of water, sewerage and solid waste management in the city.

Kamal, who served as the city's mayor when he was part of the MQM, had earlier held Waseem Akhtar responsible for the city's condition. He had claimed that he would show how to clean the city if given the same powers for 90 days, following which the mayor had assigned him the responsibility to resolve the solid waste disposal situation in central, east, west, and Korangi districts of Karachi.