The City District Government Karachi (CDGK) should introduce a "schedule" based system to undertake "strictly supervised" developmental projects in the metropolis.
"A schedule should be announced before starting any project... this will not only help ensure transparency but also allow the people to be aware of and ready for the new development in their area," said Abdul Kader Jaffer, President Pakistan Japan Business Forum (PJBF).
He was addressing members of the executive committee of PJBF here at a local hotel on Saturday. The city nazim, who was the chief guest on the occasion, could not attend the event due to illness, said the City Naib Nazim Nasreen Jalil who replaced the nazim as a chief guest.
"Roads are dug up and left incomplete which caused drainage problems for the area people... so strict supervision of the developmental projects should be ensured," the PJBF president maintained.
He said the city government had changed the face of Karachi in terms of development but a lots of works and problems were still there to be addressed to make the city a problem-free place. He said problems like pollution and pressure horns were still unabated, as laws restricting these problems were not being implemented properly.
The PJBF chief also proposed that a "distinguished but non-political" person should accompany the union council nazims as an adviser on the development affairs. Lauding the CDGK for devising the Master Plan 2020 for Karachi, the PJBF chief said the document was the need of the hour and should have been prepared at least 25 years ago.
The PJBF president also offered his help in convincing the Japanese government for granting loan to the city government for infrastructure development of the metropolis. "Japan is interested to make investments in infrastructure development projects like circular railway project etc in Karachi," he said.
In her speech, the Naib City Nazim Nasreen Jalil acknowledged that city of the 16 million people was still stuck with lots of problems as the previous city government had neglected development of Karachi. "All done by the CDGK is like a drop of water in the ocean and we have to do more to develop the previously neglected city," she added.
The deputy nazim welcomed the PJBF's proposals saying that the suggestions would be taken into account on the appropriate forum. "The ideas of schedule, transparency and advisors to the UC nazims sound good and we would take them into considerations," assured Nasreen.
She said some issues like unity of command were halting development of the city, which was being administered by 13 land owning federal and private agencies. "A Supreme Court verdict on transfer of civilian areas to the CDGK is a good omen in this regard" she said.
She said the metropolis had a five-percent growth rate in terms of migration. "People migrate to Karachi and treat it like a transit way and never care for its future," lamented the naib nazim.
She said out of a Rs 45 billion's fiscal budget the CDGK had allocated Rs 25 billion for developmental work in the city. Around 70 percent work on sewerage lines was completed while water was made available for the far-flung areas like Lyari, Korangi, Orangi, Site etc.
Later, the Pakistani and Japanese businessmen questioned the city nazim on various problems related to a bad traffic and transportation system, lack of government's attention towards human development, non-availability of water, maintenance of the historical heritage, dilapidated condition of Quaidabad bridge etc when the latter invited queries from the gathering.
The naib nazim urged Japanese businessmen to extend technical help to Pakistan on competitive rates for development of the friendly country. Senior Vice President of PJBF Masaharu Domichi gave a vote of thanks to the chief guest, who was also given a memento at the end of meeting.
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