File photo of Murtaza Wahab
Murtaza Wahab on Monday announced he is resigning as Karachi Administrator following the Sindh High Court barring the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) from collecting municipal taxes through utility bills of K-Electric.
Addressing a press conference in Karachi, he lamented the court ruling, stressing that he could have sought funding for the city from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif or Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, but had preferred to use the legal avenue of generating revenue for the KMC through taxes.
“The Constitution and the law of the land have a solution for everything,” he said, noting the law permitting the KMC to impose taxes for its functioning. “When the city roads are submerged, nobody knocks on [MQM’s] Waseem Akhtar or [Jamaat-e-Islami’s] Naeemur Rehman’s door … citizens question me, the government, and the KMC for answers,” he said, stressing the collected funds would have been used to repair the city’s infrastructure.
Regretting that recoveries during Waseem Akhtar’s tenure as mayor had not crossed 20 percent, he questioned where the money had went. Alleging corruption during his predecessor’s term, he said Akhtar had hired a private contractor to collect taxes. “Once they collected Rs. 200 million and were given Rs. 40 million [for their services],” he alleged.
“I was out in the field during the disasters supervising the repairs, rescue, and relief work personally. I was working while wearing a mask during the COVID-19 outbreak. I always tried to serve people indiscriminately without any bias,” he said, lamenting that his only goal had been the KMC’s functioning.
“There are forces at work here that don’t let us do our job efficiently,” he claimed. “It’s not easy to work in this city as everything is resisted here,” he said, adding that he would submit a formal resignation to the chief minister after his press conference.
Later, in a posting on Twitter, he shared a copy of his resignation letter and reiterated that he was stepping down from the post. “It was an honor to serve people of my city and I would like to thank my party leadership for giving me this opportunity,” he said. “May our country function on rule of law, in a manner that allows the executive and parliament to function,” he added.
Wahab was appointed KMC administrator on Aug. 6, 2021.