Pakistan’s famous host and comedian Tabish Hashmi while reacting strongly to the Gul Plaza tragedy, has said that the government should privatize Karachi like PIA, and we all will buy it together and to run it better than the government.
“Pathans, Baloch, Sindhis, refugees, Punjabis living in Karachi will all buy the city together and will manage to run it better as run by the government” he remarked.
Speaking on a private TV program, Tabish Hashmi said that my childhood was spent in Karachi from school to University of Karachi and then doing various jobs, even when I became a father, I also went to Gul Plaza for shopping. He said that there is hardly any house in Karachi where something brought from Gul Plaza is not present, from childhood to youth and now when they are in old age, the associations that were in Karachi are disappearing one by one.
Tabish Hashmi said that people asked me to make videos on the Gul Plaza tragedy, but if I have to tell the government about these things, then perhaps it is not the job of the people sitting there, they should know in advance, today these things are being said that there were problems in the building, so whose job was this? This is the job of local governments all over the world.
He said that he heard the press conference of the Sindh Chief Minister in which he said that I am responsible, but all this does not happen just through words, they have to be implemented and done, while this is not the first incident to happen in Karachi, dozens of tragedies have happened before and are happening continuously.
He said that the Sindh Chief Minister says that he is accountable, so tell me, ‘Did his position go away or his salary was cut? Even the compensation he gives to the affected people, he does not pay from his own pocket.
Talking about the Mayor of Karachi, he said that he accepts that it is our fault in everything, but at the same time he points out something that such and such a thing happened because of this, although it is a tradition in the world that when you are in a position and there are continuous incidents, you resign, but unfortunately this does not happen in Pakistan.
Talking about the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Tabish Hashmi said that they have 15 seats in the National Assembly and about 75 seats in the Provincial Assembly from Karachi, let’s accept that the people doubt his mandate, but do he himself doubt his mandate? Why are they not coming out, why are they not convinced that they represent so many constituencies in Karachi?
Tabish Hashmi said that if you ask me, “I will say that when the government realized that they could not run PIA, they privatized it. You should privatize Karachi in the same way. All the people of Karachi, Pathans, Baloch, Sindhis, Mohajirs, Punjabis, we will all buy the city together”.
He added that he is sure that they will run a very good city, if we have to run it like this, then we will not be able to run this city worse than the government.
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