All chief ministers behaving like dictators, says Mustafa Kamal

KARACHI: Pak Sarzameen Party Chairman Mustafa Kamal slammed the Centre and provincial governments on Wednesday, blaming them for not solving the city's civic issues and behaving like dictators.

"Democratic parties, after getting elected, behave like dictators," said Kamal, speaking to media outside an accountability court where he appeared alongside PPP's Nisar Morai and Anis Qaimkhani in a reference pertaining to the allotment of plots in Clifton illegally. "All chief ministers are behaving like dictators," he added.

The former Karachi mayor said that the rights and authorities which were granted by the 18th Amendment should trickle down to the lower levels of governance as well.

While speaking to media, Kamal said that Karachi is the heart of Sindh, and the current style of politics in Pakistan cannot continue.

The PSP leader lamented that the chief minister keeps all the funds of the province, according to the National Finance Award.

“This money does not belong to the chief minister, it should be distributed on a local level,” said Kamal.

The PSP chief said that according to the same rules and regulations, even the prime minister can say tomorrow that the Centre will release funds to one province and not the other.

Speaking on Karachi’s civic issues, he said that similar to the division of Sindh, the metropolis' division was unacceptable.

Referring to Karachi as the country’s "revenue engine", Kamal said that the city is facing cleanliness and power problems.

In July, the Sindh High Court had approved the interim bail plea of former Karachi mayor Mustafa Kamal in relation to the illegal plot allotment case.

The plea stated that an accountability court had issued a notice in relation to allotting 198 plots to hawkers. Kamal said that after issuing the notice, the NAB can arrest him any time and it should be stopped from doing so.

The former mayor said that he is willing to face the matter in the court.

NAB accusations

In 2019, the anti-graft watchdog had booked Kamal and 10 others over the allegedly illegal sale and purchase of an amenity plot spread over more than 6,000 square yards near sea view.

The other suspects are former and current government officers Fazlur Rehman, Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Mumtaz Haider, Syed Nishat Ali and Nazir Zardari, and real estate developers Dawood, Zain Malik, Muhammad Yaqoob, Muhammad Irfan and Muhammad Rafiq.

According to The News, the NAB accused that the suspects had sold an amenity plot owned by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation in Clifton to a private builder to construct a high-rise.

The plot of 6,632 square yards situated between Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine and Bagh Ibne Qasim was supposed to be given to sea-shell hawkers to set up their stalls, but it was illegally sold to builders at below the market price, claims the watchdog.

NAB maintained that Kamal had approved the commercial status of the plot, following which it was sold to DJ Builders, which later sold it to Bahria Town. The watchdog said the plot’s price was shown to be Rs260 million, while it valued more than Rs2.5 billion, adding that the plot had initially been divided into 198 stalls to be handed over to hawkers, but the plan did not materialise.

NAB said that in 2007 the plot was amalgamated into one and sold to DJ Builders, while in 2014 it was sold to Bahria Town, which started work on it to build a skyscraper. 

The watchdog said the entire process was illegal, as neither can the status of the plot be changed nor a building higher than a storey be built on it. It added that the suspects using their influence caused loss of over Rs2 billion to the national exchequer.