Bureau Report
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Sunday claimed that at least $10 billion were required to modernise the port city’s infrastructure. Shah talked about Karachi’s problems along with some major representatives of the main political parties during a television programme. Taking note of the new monsoon spell that entered the city on July 26-27, he commented, “The city’s issues are not new; they have been here for some time. In the past four years, we have worked a lot on cleaning the storm drains in the city.”
“There was a lot of rain back in 2007 when nearly 200 people had died,” he added. The chief minister also talked about how the Sindh government has been giving funds to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to clean the nullahs of the city. “In the last four years, we cleared many nullahs in the city. Despite the rain the water was cleared within three to four hours,” he said, adding, “The major problem is due to a major structure which has blocked all nullahs in Karachi, which are the responsibility of the cantonments and DMCS.”
He additionally talked about how the responsibility of cleaning storm drains lies with KMC and that Sindh government had given the required funding for it. The spokesperson for the Sindh government, Senator Murtaza Wahab, said that he would identify the issues plaguing the metropolis rather than mudslinging. “Until and unless we all understand the challenges that Karachi faces, they cannot be resolved,” Wahab added.
CM Murad emphasised that although 187mm of rainfall was recorded in Surjani Town and Nazimabad, the rainwater was cleared in 3-4 hours. “Shahrah-e-Faisal was not blocked despite the heavy rain,” he added. He also said that in the past four years, a lot of work was done to clean the nullahs, yet water still stagnated at KDA and Nagan Chowrangis for four or five days. “Even now, there’s rainwater in New Karachi,” he added, saying the government had been giving funds to the KMC to clear the nullahs. CM Murad said that he had met the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal, a few days ago, and was grateful to the authority for clearing three nullahs in Karachi.
“The Supreme Court (SC) had ordered the NDMA to clear all the nullahs. When it rained again, the Gujjar nullah overflowed once more,” he noted. The CM admitted that the KMC was short on funds, informing that only Rs1.5 billion was collected through property taxes in Karachi, as opposed to Rs55 billion in Mumbai in the same category. “Garbage collection is a major problem in Karachi,” CM Murad said.
Commenting on the recently formed coordination committee, the CM informed that it comprised federal and provincial ministers. “Such committees have been set up in the past as well,” he said, stating that there was a communication gap between the government of Sindh and Centre. “The committee will not bring administrative matters under discussions,” he stated.
Responding to the chief minister’s remarks about KMC having the responsibility to clean up drains in the city, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar said that Karachi did not fall under the domain of one man.
“One person does not have entire city’s domain,” Akhtar said, adding that the issues originated from the fact that the powers were not with one person.
“Till the local governments are not given power, nothing can be done. Cleaning nullahs is my responsibility but I only did so until I had the resources,” he added, stressing that had the Article 148 been imposed, the city would not have been facing these issues.
