"Pakistan needs a sustainable growth rate of around 7-8 percent in order to deal with the ongoing economic crises and create at least two million jobs for the youth entering the job market, which can only be achieved if Karachi city receives enhanced share from the federal and provincial pools," said President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Agha Shahab Ahmed Khan.
He demanded that keeping in view the massive urbanization, it is high time that the federal and provincial governments must enhance all resources being allocated to this city otherwise the miseries already being faced by Karachiites, mainly due to poor infrastructure and lack of basic amenities, would continue to worsen further in the days to come.
He cautioned that there is a threat to livability in Karachi, which has been acting as the engine of growth. Hence, the decision makers will have to devise effective strategy to save this city and provide some relief of perturbed Karachiites.
Agha Shahab pointed out that Karachi, which generates a mammoth amount of more than 70 percent revenue to the national exchequer and 95 percent plus revenue to Sindh Revenue Board, deserves special attention but unfortunately, almost all the major issues being suffered by the city since quite some time now were not being taken into consideration neither by the federal government nor by provincial government. Our city faces numerous challenges including poor infrastructure, dilapidated roads, chocked sewerage lines, severe traffic jams, inexistent public transport, water, gas & electricity shortages, encroachment problems and a host of other civic issues that have resulted in terribly worsening the overall standard of living and doing business in Karachi," he added.
Identifying some the serious civic issues being faced by Karachiites, Agha Shahab mentioned that large population of dogs leading to people getting bitten and infected with rabies, garbage & sewerage issues, street crimes, water crises caused mainly by the tanker mafia, lack of parks and public places, air pollution, beggar mafia and land mafia etc. were some of those serious problems which require an immediate and effective strategy to save this important city from further disaster.
President KCCI said that the standard of living has deteriorated sharply in Karachi where population keeps on rising mainly due to massive influx from all provinces of the country but Karachi is not in a position to cope with such migration levels which pose serious challenges particularly shelter to the urban poor and security problems. "People are moving from the countryside to Karachi in droves, and for various reasons, of which one of the major reason is to seek better livelihoods and employment opportunities which are hardly available because of depressed performance of the industrial sector."
He noted that Karachi, which is ranked among the bottom 10 cities in the Global Livability Index, is one of the most disaster-vulnerable cities in Pakistan where population levels are high.
"No cohesive transportation policy exists for Karachi, even as thousands of new vehicles are added to the roads each day. Karachi's transport problems cannot be resolved by simply investing in more infrastructure and facilities. The solution lies in a comprehensive strategy and efficient out-of-the-box solutions," he said, adding that no mass transit project announced by the past few federal, provincial or municipal governments have come to fruition yet and even the green line BRT remains a dream as work on the federally funded green line seems to have been stalled as parts of the city center remain dug up and are inaccessible to commuters.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
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