Despite the formation of city government in Karachi, urban infrastructure development is still a distant dream for the citizens of the megacity as no serious efforts are being taken in this regard, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.He said water shortage, prolonged load shedding, battered roads and poor public transport facilities still haunt the megacity as all the three tiers of government- local, provincial and federal- are least interested in a fast-paced development of Karachi.
He said the law and order situation is unsatisfactory and street crime is on the rise. He said both the PPP and MQM are in the government but they are doing nothing for betterment of the megacity.Altaf Shakoor demanded of the federal and provincial governments to tag special funds for the rapid uplift of Karachi. He said the delayed projects of the Karachi Circular Railway, second phase of the Green Line and other BRT projects be completed without further loss of time.
He said the recent tragedy of Pakistani students in Bishkek shows that in our country there are not adequate professional education facilities.
He demanded that medical colleges should be established in every district of Pakistan with plenty of seats to accommodate our meritorious students who want to become doctors. He said Karachi needs medical colleges at town level to cater the growing needs of medical training.He said the prolonged load shedding in Karachi is agonizing and the KE has become a curse for the Karachiites.
He regretted that the government and Nepra are too afraid to take on the KE that has become a modern East India Company for the Karachiites. He said the government should introduce interest-free loaning schemes for low income people to buy solar panels to generate rooftop energy for their households.He demanded that an independent board for the uplift of Karachi should be constituted with representation from all political parties of the megacity to run and supervise uplift plans for Karachi to make it a livable megacity.