MQM-P criticises Hyderabad mayor, utility over worsening water crisis

HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan lawmakers Wasim Hussain and Rashid Khan have launched a sharp attack on the Hyderabad Water and Sewerage Corporation (HW&SC) and the city mayor over an acute drinking water shortage affecting residents during an intense heatwave ahead of Eidul Azha.

Speaking at a press conference at the Hyderabad Press Club, MNA Wasim Hussain and MPA Rashid Khan said the utility had failed to ensure water supply to large parts of the city. They blamed the mayor for not resolving the crisis and accused him of depending on what they described as an incompetent HW&SC administration, including its chief executive officer.

The two MQM-P leaders linked the corporation’s performance to what they alleged was entrenched corruption in the Sindh government. They claimed that unqualified officials were repeatedly appointed to public offices and accused them of misusing state funds. They further alleged that despite the Pakistan Peoples Party remaining in power for 18 years, the corporation had still not been able to provide water to most parts of Hyderabad before the upcoming festival.

Allegations over governance and salaries

The lawmakers said senior HW&SC officials were drawing high salaries despite, in their view, lacking even basic urban planning knowledge. They held the Hyderabad mayor, the Sindh chief minister and the PPP chairman responsible for the situation, accusing them of showing little concern over the hardship faced by residents.

Hussain also raised the issue of pay disparity within the corporation, alleging that while top officials were receiving lucrative salary packages, daily wage workers were being paid only Rs15,000, which he said was below the legal minimum wage.

He called on Field Marshal Asim Munir to begin focused action against corruption and economic mismanagement after the completion of internal security operations. Hussain said people who had started with nothing in 2008 had since become millionaires, and argued that corruption in Sindh needed to be tackled to restore public services. He also referred to the recent raid on the deputy commissioner’s office and the arrest of an under-training assistant mukhtiarkar, saying the episode showed how deeply corruption had spread in government departments.

Power outages and water infrastructure

Hussain acknowledged that electricity load-shedding by the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company was worsening the water shortage. He said that, as a member of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Power, he would meet the Hesco chief on Monday. He added that he would not go easy on the federal utility despite MQM-P being part of the ruling coalition at the centre.

The MNA also said he would respond formally on the floor of the National Assembly to recent criticism of MQM-P by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, and would do so in Bilawal’s presence.

Rashid Khan said the HW&SC management lacked the ability to run the utility and that its performance was steadily deteriorating. He said pumping machinery at several reservoirs remained out of order because the corporation did not have the capacity to repair it. He added that lagoons in Jamshoro had not been de-silted.

Khan further alleged that instead of improving existing filtration plants, municipal authorities were planning new water schemes to benefit particular housing projects expected to be built in those areas. He also claimed that some residents were being deprived of drinking water because they were not PPP voters.

Bilawal speech and law and order remarks

Referring to Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s speech on Friday against MQM-P, Rashid Khan defended his party’s record and criticised the PPP’s public-private partnership model, which he said had imposed extra costs on the public. As an example, he said commuters had to pay a Rs200 toll to use Shahrah-i-Bhutto.

On law and order, Khan referred to the recent police action against narcotics dealers and demanded that authorities identify those who had backed the drug trade when it was at its height. He said the government had ignored the issue while ordinary families were losing children to addiction, and only moved after the children of certain parliamentarians were affected.