ON Saturday Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), while setting aside their political differences, sat together to frame what could be called an unprecedented package ever announced for Karachi to address chronic and festering civic problems of the provincial capital. Given gravity of situation, such a package was certainly needed for this important metropolis.
After consultations that also involved Sindh government, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Rs 1.1 trillion financial package during his visit to Karachi. Flanked by Karachi committee members including provincial CM Murad Ali Shah, the PM said the package would be utilised to address problems of water, sewerage, solid waste management as well as road and transport. Though the people will themselves witness implementation of the package, yet expectations are high this time, as Provincial Coordination Implementation Committee (PCIC) has also been constituted under the CM Sindh to ensure implementation of projects to be executed under the package. PM Imran Khan deserves appreciation for showing open heartedness and recognising lead role of the provincial government in implementation of the package. This shows his concerns for Karachiites. In fact there should be no more politics vis-à-vis development of Karachi. If problems of the city are addressed in given timelines, credit for this will go both to federal and provincial governments. Thus politics should not be allowed to sabotage development of Karachi, as successful implementation will be a win-win situation both for the PTI and the PPP.
The focus on Karachi has given a ray of hope to its residents whose lives have been hit hard by recent devastating monsoon rains. Had its infrastructure needs were not ignored in the past, it would not have faced such a gloomy situation today. Anyway a good beginning has been made and now all energies should be devoted to provide basic amenities of life to Karachiites. We understand it will not be an easy sailing, as people will resist the anti-encroachment operation along the Nullahs. Since it is a matter of shelter for people, therefore, provincial government must immediately come up with a settlement plan for such families that may face displacement as a result of this drive. The provincial authorities will have to give confidence to all these families that they will be provided with proper shelter if they abandon encroached land. In the first place, the provincial government will have to arrange temporary shelters for them and then it can establish permanent colonies for them.
Once demolishing encroached structures along the Nullahs, it must also be ensured that new encroachments do not crop up again there. Clearing nullahs from all sorts of waste as well as encroachments is important to avert flood like situation in future. There are also questions as from where the federal and provincial governments will arrange funds for this package. No financial constraint should be allowed in the way of restoring lost glory of the city, as there was time when tourists from other countries preferred to visit it. Today the situation is that Karachi has lagged far behind when compared with other regional cities such as Tehran, Istanbul, Beijing and Shangahi. There should not be any delay in execution of projects envisaged for Karachi even if federal government has to take loans from international financial institutions. Some re-appropriation can be done in the federal PSDP and the annual development plan of Sindh to make available funds for the city that contributes immensely to country’s economy. And the fact of matter is that we can attract more foreign investment by just making over Karachi. Given the close collaboration that has been seen in recent years between Pakistan and China, the Chinese companies can also be engaged particularly in projects such as solid waste management and improvement of sewerage and sanitation system to ensure a neat and clean look.
As regards its transformation and development, it is also very important that services of corrupt and incompetent staff of KDA and KMC from top to bottom must be terminated as they are chiefly responsible for allowing massive encroachments in the metropolis. Since population is on the rise, it is also for our authorities concerned to look into massive corruption that seriously mars functions of civic bodies of cities such as Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Peshawar before their problems also become as serious as those of Karachi.
