Mayor Karachi, Waseem Akhtar on Tuesday informed that he had proposed the Sindh government Rs 9 billion for the city's development schemes for the fiscal year 2017-18. "A detailed proposal in this regard has been already submitted with the provincial government", the Mayor said this while addressing a press conference here at the Old KMC Building.
In the next financial, he said Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) is eager to execute as many as 143 schemes in the metropolis with an estimated cost of some 25 billion. However due to financial crisis the civic body has to look towards the provincial government for monetary assistance, he said. "After 10 years, the local bodies' representatives have got a chance to serve the city, but still I fear that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP)-led provincial government by exercising its past practices would handover these projects too to bureaucrats," he said.
PPP is a democratic party, and the local bodies system does exist in its constitution. But, it would be a sheer violation of Sindh Local Bodies' Act 2013, if the development schemes were given away to any department other than KMC, he said. Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, should bring more development projects in the provincial annual development programme (ADP) in the next financial year as per citizens' will, he said.