KARACHI: Ateeq Ur Rehman, a financial analyst has said that Karachi being the commercial capital of Pakistan should be treated as that of Islamabad - the capital of Pakistan for overcoming host of civic problems multiplying day by day.

The fifth largest city of the world which is the economic, industrial, commercial and financial hub of Pakistan drowned for over a week without and remained electricity, drinking water and mobile services, as if we are from pragmatic ancient days, he said.

The devastation by recent rains made poor Karachiites think that they are without any guardian, at all.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan finally unveiled Karachi Transformation Plan by announcing a Rs. 1,100 billion package to resolve the lingering and chronic issues like clean drinking water, cleaning of drains, sewage, solid waste disposal within 3 Years.

Out of Rs. 1,100 billion, Rs. 800 billion is for projects of Sindh Government whereas Rs. 300 billion is for the projects of the Federal Government, Rs. 92 billion has been allocated for water supply projects, Rs. 141 billion for sewage treatment, Rs. 267 billion for solid waste management, Rs. 41 billion for roads and Rs. 572 billion for mass transit, rail/road transport.

He added Karachi's annual contribution to national exchequer is nearly Rs.3600 billion per annum, for 3 Years it is going to be Rs.10800 billion. PM's package is Rs.1100 billion for 3 Years that means Rs.370 billion per year by successive governments, which is still not decided owing to confusion as to what the share contribution by the federal government is and what is the share contribution by the Provincial Government out of it.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020