KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan Saturday announced a Rs1,100 billion package under the Karachi Transformation Plan to resolve the lingering and chronic issues of the port city, including provision of clean drinking water, cleaning of drains, and sewage and solid waste disposal within three years.

Unveiling the details of the plan in a media talk after chairing a meeting, the prime minister said both the federal and provincial governments would contribute to the total package.

For better coordination and implementation of the plan, he said, it was agreed upon to set up a Provincial Coordination and Implementation Committee (PCIC) with all the stakeholders on board to promptly and swiftly resolve the burning issues of Karachi.

Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, federal and provincial ministers and a number of legislators were also present.

Terming it 'a historic day' for Karachi, the prime minister said the country was already going through the coronavirus pandemic when it was hit by flash floods triggered by unusual seasonal rainfall.

"The floods have hardly hit different areas of Balochistan, interior Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including Swat and Chitral. The country has been passing through another test," he added.

The prime minister said Karachi also witnessed unprecedented rainfall, which caused devastation and expressed the resolve that they would jointly tackle all the issues.

Under the short, medium and long terms plans, drains would be completely cleaned, whereas the provincial government had taken responsibility to rehabilitate the displaced people from the illegal encroachments, he added.

He said major issues like the sewage system and solid waste, transport, circular railway, and roads for Green Line would be fully resolved under the package permanently.

The prime minister said the residents of Karachi had been passing through ordeals and mentioned that functioning of different civic jurisdictions had created problems in the resolution of the issues.

He also lauded the armed forces for their relief and rescue activities in different parts of the country.

Imran Khan stressed that implementation part of the Karachi package would be essential, besides well coordination by all the stakeholders under the PCIC.

He cited that due to setting up a national coordination committee in the wake of coronavirus, they succeeded in overcoming the pandemic due to well-coordinated efforts put by all the stakeholders, including the provincial governments.

Similarly, they responded collectively over the locust threat, which was still looming, he observed.

The prime minister said contrary to Pakistan, the coronavirus pandemic was affecting India very hard impacting her economy. Pakistan had emerged successful in controlling its spread due to total coordinated efforts by all the stakeholders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020