A spokesman for prime minister, Sindh Governor, Karachi Mayor and some political parties' leaders presented their recommendations for revival of Karachi at an event. Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, founder of the 'Reviving Karachi Initiative' organized an event what he called the national dialogue on Karachi in which he invited political parties and the federal government representatives at a hotel, here on Wednesday evening.
Sindh Governor Muhammad Zubair, Pak-Sarzameen Party (PSP) chief Syed Mustafa Kamal, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi chapter chief Engr Hafiz Muhammad Naeemur Rehman, Minister of State and spokesman to the Prime Minister Dr Musadik Malik, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh president Dr Arif Alvi, Chartered Accountant Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi and others highlighted the issues and put forward recommendations for their resolutions.
"Karachi has been expanded rapidly without planning for a couple of decades. Today, issues are enormous while resources are limited," Sindh Governor said, citing that the Karachi Port expansion took place without taking into consideration the road/highway and rail connectivity with parts of the city.
He said that no proper plan was evolved for disposal of garbage in the port city for the last many years. He said the civic authorities continued to throw entire waste into sea engendering environment and health issues. He said the Federal Government was committed to work for the revival of Karachi. He referred that the Prime Minister recently approved Rs 25 billion package for the city. He said that the under-construction federally-financed Green Line project would also ease the traffic problems with facilitating some 0.5 million citizens on a daily basis. He said that law and order was improved with the help of Karachi Operation. He praised the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) for the restoration of peace in Karachi. He said the deployment of paramilitary troops in the city boosted level of confidence and sense of protection in businessmen as well as common man.
"We are conducting a study on a plan for traffic management in Karachi," Governor said, adding that they would also meet a Chinese company within a couple of days, in this regard.
Zubair also requested the political parties not to disturb economic momentum of Karachi by uncalled for protests and sit-ins. He said Karachi is the financial hub of the country and prosperity of the whole county is linked with the progress of Karachi.
"Karachi is bigger than 62 countries in the world. It also has over 800 Goths and 400 Kachi Abadis while total population has reached 250 million people," said PSP Chief Mustafa Kamal rejecting the recently held census result.
The ex-mayor further said that right questions are not being raised for complete solution of the problems. He said that availability of drinking water has become a distant dream for the residents of various city neighborhoods. He said that North Nazimabad, Baldia, PECHS, and Orangi Town are the worst-affected areas where water remains unavailable for 30 to 40 days also.
"Karachi needs some 1250 million gallon water per day. Since there is no river passing through Karachi, the two water sources Keenjhar Lake and Hub Dam provide 550 mgpd and 100 mgpd, respectively, while the shortfall stands at 600 mgpd, at present," he said.
Kamal asked the government to initiate K-IV Phase-II alongside the ongoing 260 mgpd K-IV phase-I project. He said the simultaneous initiation of Phase-II would help government to reduce project cost as the existing manpower, engineers and machinery can be utilized for the same purpose. He said that government also needs to ensure fair water distribution among Karachiites.
He also urged the Sindh Government to allocate 600 million gallon water quota of Karachi for the next 10 years as the existing one has been exhausted. He said that Sindh is receiving a total 36670 million gallon per day out of which Karachi is receiving only 550 mgpd or 1.5 percent water of the province.
He recommended construction of five garbage transfer stations (GTS) in the city on a priority basis because this would help the city administration to lift garbage, effectively.
"The city is generating some 12000 tons of garbage while the civic authority can hardly lift 2000 thons. The rest of waste remained dumped in the heart of the city, creating health and environmental issues," he said citing that presently, Jam Chakro and Gold Past are the two landfill sides at a minimum four-hour travel distance from Karachi. The truck drivers usually throw the garbage somewhere else before reaching the designated points. He said they are also indulged in diesel theft, putting a huge financial burden on the civic utility's budget, as there is no authority to have a check on them.
He lashed out at the PPP-led Sindh government for holding control on various civic departments, depriving the local bodies' representatives of their legitimate powers. He proposed that KW&SB, transport and solid waste management system must be the subjects of the KMC and the Mayor must be empowered. He also referred that a master plan department was established in 2007 for the check on wrongdoings of building control authority in the city; however the incumbent provincial government has arbitrarily taken the department under the control of the SBCA. He alerted that things would get even worst if the master plan is not made an independent watchdog. He also underscored the need of a 'unity of command' to carry out civic affairs of the city. Municipal Service authority should be the subject of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
JI Karachi chief Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman said the political uncertainly, ethnic clashes and sectarian violence led to loss of education and civilization of the metropolis in recent years.
"Gone the days when Karachi used to be the political nucleus of the country. Movements emerged from Karachi used to have a greater impact on other parts of the country. But, we have lost all that importance and prestige due to urban feudalism during last 30 years," he said. On the power outages, he said, the ruling parties had been hands in gloves with the K Electric (KE). He alleged that the rulers sold out the interests of masses for their own monetary benefits.
"The KE's hours long load shedding continues unabated. Line losses are still at previous levels; its production has not been increased, so far. But, its profit has gone up to Rs 32 billion. How?" he asked and accused the KE administration of plundering masses. He said KE was not giving relief to consumers despite earning billions of rupees under its shoddy mechanism. He said the KE had illegally been charging bank fees, metre rent, besides issuing excessive bills to masses.
Spokesman of the Prime Minister Dr Musadik Malik, who represented Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) at the event, said that he would take up the concerns of political parties regarding the census results with PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.
He advised the critics to wait for the 2018 general elections.
Regarding census results, he said that the officials hired by the provincial governments had carried out census process, and the federal government had nothing to do with the outcomes.
Musadik said the centre has also played role to resolve the Karachi issues as various federally-financed projects are underway in the port city.
Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar was of the view that all stakeholders are equally responsible for the destruction of the city.
"Criticizing and finger pointing on a single party is relatively an easy job," he said, urging that we all have to contribute our positive role for development of the city.
He said some parties came to power thrice but continued to take foreign loans to run the country affairs and the practice is still underway. He said no development work was done in Karachi during the last nine years while the city was governed by administrators.
"I am the only politician who got elected from behind the bars and became Mayor of the city," he said, adding that, only 27 percent of the city is under his control while provincial government grabbed my powers. Referring to the PM's Rs 25 billion Karachi package he said the problems of the city need Rs 25,000 billion to be resolved.
Syed Muhammad Shabbar Zaidi spoke on strengths of Karachi as he said that the city is the engine for Pakistan's and Sindh's economy. He said that its cosmopolitan nature is real strength of this city.
"People speaking different languages, having varied cultures and habits, diverse genealogical backgrounds, live together in this city. So, this city is unique in many ways," he said, adding that Karachi played a highly constructive role in economic, social and political evolution of Pakistan in the past and continues to do so now and even in the worst phases the city continued to contribute one third of the total taxes in the country.
He said that in the past three to four decades, the acceleration to the Pakistan's economy and society contributed by the city has been constantly diminishing. He said that despite issues, the city has maintained economic growth rate relatively higher than other parts of the country. He said this is the reflection of potential of this metropolis for the development of province. He said the investors are bullish about Karachi's business and real estates.
He said Karachi has all season port for international sea trade traffic. He cited that Karachi has one of the best air strips in the world for all-weather landing including natural geographical centre for travel from east to west (in the middle between London to Singapore).
"Karachi has relatively cheaper as well as trained and educated human resources, as well. It has an organized set up for the supply of utilities including power and gas," he said.
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