By Shakeel Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: It’s the first time that the Center is working for a province where the opposition rules, said Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz on Karachi transformation package in a press conference, on Monday.
Faraz said that misconstruing facts has become normal for Bilawal now, talking of which he added, “Opposition is trying to misguide the people but it’s not working anymore.”
Problems of Karachi are up to the eyeballs now, he said. “Sindh government has taken loans but no development work is visible in Karachi,” he pointed out.
He asserted that the Prime Minister has announced a grand package for Karachi’s facelift. “Karachi is the business and trading hub of Pakistan and that its problems are now out of control.”
Faraz said that the financial package could not be entrusted to PPP as the Center does not trust them. “We want to make sure the money is materialized for the development of Karachi people.”
Faraz further said that the development projects included in the package will be completed within three years. The K4 project will be allocated Rs46 billion while the Green-Line BRT project will be dedicated Rs5 billion.
He said that the Center will bear Rs611 billion out of the total Karachi transformation package, indicating that the rest shall be taken care of by the provincial kitty.
Speaking of Karachi people and the abundance of issues they face, Faraz said that the Center will do everything it can to address Karachi’s problems. Moreover, he asserted that the people of interior Sindh are no different and that the “federal government will indiscriminately allay their grievances as well”.
Talking about the Karachi Circular Railway, he said that the provincial government wanted to claim this project but since the KCR comes under the ambit of Federal Railways, the centre will carry out this project as well. He said that his government wishes to create a conducive environment to resolve the issues of the metropolis. “We don’t want to get into any controversies on the matter of Karachi.”
On the matter of clearing the encroachments around nullahs, he stressed that it was agreed that the Sindh government shall recompense and resettle those low-income communities whose establishments will be brought down and demolished in the clearance drive.
