{"id":5718,"date":"2025-10-01T15:04:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=5718"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:04:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:04:28","slug":"karachi-mayor-murtaza-wahab-says-if-i-speak-on-punjab-maryam-will-be-upset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/?p=5718","title":{"rendered":"Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab Says \u201cIf I Speak on Punjab, Maryam Will Be Upset\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Karachi \u2013 October 1, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Karachi Mayor <strong>Murtaza Wahab<\/strong> sparked both political curiosity and public debate when he remarked that he refrains from commenting on Punjab\u2019s matters because it may upset Punjab Chief Minister <strong>Maryam Nawaz<\/strong>. Speaking to the media in Karachi, Wahab balanced humor with pointed criticism, highlighting Karachi\u2019s chronic neglect in development spending compared to other provinces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During his address at the <strong>Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases<\/strong>, Wahab announced that within the next two months, the hospital would begin offering <strong>free laboratory services<\/strong> to patients. He explained that diagnostic tests will be provided at no cost, marking a significant step in providing affordable healthcare to Karachi\u2019s residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, much of his talk centered on Karachi\u2019s longstanding grievances with the federal government\u2019s allocation of funds. The Mayor dismissed the recently announced <strong>20 billion rupee package for Karachi<\/strong> as nothing more than a \u201clollipop.\u201d According to him, even <strong>200 billion rupees<\/strong> would be insufficient to meet the city\u2019s pressing needs. He criticized the idea of creating companies to manage city projects, arguing instead that what Karachi truly needs is <strong>direct rights, transparency, and empowerment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wahab\u2019s pointed remark \u2014 <em>\u201cIf I say something about Punjab, Maryam Bibi will be upset\u201d<\/em> \u2014 was made in response to Maryam Nawaz\u2019s recent comments on Punjab\u2019s pressing issues such as water shortages and canal management. While avoiding a direct political confrontation, Wahab acknowledged that the <strong>people of Punjab are suffering<\/strong> and emphasized the responsibility of governments to address their grievances. His statement reflected both solidarity with Punjab\u2019s people and caution in avoiding political friction with the Chief Minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mayor also contrasted Punjab\u2019s progress with Karachi\u2019s lack of infrastructure. He noted that while Punjab boasts modern motorways, <strong>Karachi \u2014 despite being Pakistan\u2019s largest city and main port \u2014 still lacks a proper motorway<\/strong>. This disparity, he argued, highlights systemic neglect of Karachi in national development priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wahab pointed out that examining the <strong>15-year record of the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP)<\/strong> would reveal how Karachi has been consistently overlooked. Instead of short-term projects, he called for <strong>sustainable urban planning<\/strong>, better transport systems, clean water supply, and an overall uplift of the city\u2019s basic civic infrastructure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a swipe at populist projects, he said Karachi\u2019s people don\u2019t just need \u201celectric buses,\u201d but meaningful <strong>improvement in living conditions<\/strong> \u2014 including better healthcare, education, employment opportunities, and civic amenities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Karachi \u2013 October 1, 2025 Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab sparked both political curiosity and public debate when he remarked that he refrains from commenting on Punjab\u2019s matters because it may upset Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz. Speaking to the media in Karachi, Wahab balanced humor with pointed criticism, highlighting Karachi\u2019s chronic neglect in development spending [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_828796993651875":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pakistan"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5721,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5718\/revisions\/5721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paksouch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}