The final report on the study, being conducted by the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) on "Karachi vitalisation scenario," will be available next month.
The second workshop on the JBIC study, which began in April, was held here on July 8. The participants included Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Vice-President Engr. M.A.Jabbar, Jetro Director General Hiroyuki Miyagawa, Advisor to the Consul General of Japan Shigeyuki Ataka, team leader (urban development specialist from Japan) Yusuke Namba and Barrister Shahida Jamil.
The objective of the study is to promote a vision for future development of Karachi as an attractive economic centre.
It will examine and focus sectors and issues to be addressed, conduct dialogue and hear various stakeholders related to the development of Karachi.
Addressing the workshop, Engr. Jabbar said that upgradation of industrial infrastructure and implementation of police reforms would have positive affects on the investment climate of Karachi.
Appreciating the study, he said that it should incorporate the upgradation of infrastructure for trade and industry, and added the industry was the mother of generating employment and as such this needed special focus on the problems it faced.
The FPCCI Vice-President said that the recovery of economy in Pakistan had limited itself to only macro economic stability, but had remained non-producer of the jobs, adversely affecting peace of the civil society.
He said the 10 percent and more of the 30 million workforce, unemployed was also shared by Karachi, and added it was a threat to the peace of the society.
The compliance of correcting environment would help in taking position for doing business under the international trading laws in political economy of the world trading system, he said.
The visualised proposal required a solution, which the government had to initiate and this study could also place more importance for the same in terms of international obligations to share the improvement of global environment for revitalisation of Karachi, he added.
The education areas unsatisfactory and quality and quantity required improvement, he said, regretting that the budget had offered only 0.5 percent to spend on education, health and social welfare, which had placed us to the bottom of the countries, who spent the least of gross domestic product (GDP) on education, health and social development.
Jabbar said that low respect to the heritage and few cultural events in Karachi were well recognised by the preliminary study. These areas had relationship with the education to recognise the values and importance and enjoyment of the same, he added.
Lack of entertainment and amusement was the weakness of the city of Karachi, he said.
The FPCCI Vice-President said community and citizenship and harmony had to improve for a civil society, which focused on work rather than creating conflicts amongst communities.
Transport and traffic required policy planning so that the investment on transport was cheap for motivating the investments in this sector, he said.
The administrative and legal reforms in the bodies managing land and housing, water supply, drainage and sanitation, solid waste management and electricity were also required, he said, adding these changes must provide private public partnership and role for civil society so that public hearings could become the basis of any change in the policy affecting the rights of a particular community at the cost of other community.
"The Police Order 2001 has to be implemented, ensuring the tenure postings of police officials so that they focus on claiming efficiency by controlling law and order instead of making protocol duties for pleasing the influential groups," he said.
The public safety commissions, Capital City Police Commission and provincial public safety commission had to be constituted to bring accountability of police officers and provide access to efficiency, integrity, which would have positive impact on achieving the objects of selling peace to the society, the principal job of the police, he said.
The service sector in Karachi might be divided into two parts, public and private, he suggested, saying other linkages through e-technology had to be placed to enable Karachi to claim credit worthiness for attracting investment to generate further capital and employment.
SHAHIDA JAMIL: Barrister Shahida Jamil, agreeing on many points raised by Engr. Jabbar, said that the problems, coming in the way of study, might be due to missing records of land and non-availability of data for planning, which might create problems for the completion of study.
She said that upgrading the skills and modernisation of police would have to be undertaken in any plan drawn for the "Karachi vitalisation scenario."
Shigeyuki Ataka said that the events in Karachi like the attack on the Corp Commander and suicide bombing demoted the image and stalls investment.
He said that people were indifferent and "I have specific concern as to how the Federal government will react to this study."
The study must also provide guidance for small industry, he added.
The planning and development department proposed to build Southern By-pass in Karachi on the pattern of Northern By-pass, develop coastal areas and use residue of one industry for Karachi, which could also solve some of the problems of the people of Karachi, he suggested.