Daily Times

KARACHI: Around 15 different authorities including federal, provincial, autonomous bodies and civic entities are simultaneously the custodians of land control in Karachi.

Under federal government control entities-Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan, Pakistan Railway (PR), Cantonment Boards, Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Export Processing Zones, Pakistan Public Works Department, Pakistan Coast Guard, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Evacuee Trust Board and Sport Boards have collectively control over lands in Karachi to nearly 32.01 percent.

Under provincial control bodies-Board of Revenue Sindh, Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority, Gothabad Scheme, Cooperative Societies, Sindh Industrial Trading Estate, Malir Development Authority, Lyari Development Authority, Karachi Development Authority, Auqaf and Religious Affairs Department and Sindh Police have a land share of 36.08 percent in Karachi.

Civic bodies include Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, six district municipal corporations, District Council Karachi and 246 Union Councils have control over 30.09 percent of the land in Karachi.

Karachi, the seventh biggest city in the world having more than 30 million population can be considered a unique metropolis that has been braving so many land control authorities.

World’s other largest cities’ build-up urban areas under 2016 estimates to have a single authority of its land . Tokyo-Yokohama, Jakarta, Delhi, Seoul-Incheon, Manila, Mumbai, Shanghai, New York, Sao Paulo, Beijing, Mexico City, Guangzhou-Foshan, Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto, Moscow, Dhaka, Cairo,Bangkok, Los Angeles and Kolkata are among them.

Waseem Akhtar, Mayor Karachi was of the view that multiple tier-system, weak revenues, poor organisational capacity and management, land disputes among bodies, overall weak municipal services, large slums, poor sewerage and water supply system and traffic congestion due to poor infrastructure are the reasons of planning failure and deceitful system.

KMC, district council, KDA, six cantonment boards, PQA, KPT, PR, PSM, SITE, besides commissionerate system are discharging identical municipal functions like health and education, building and cleaning of roads, building bridges, maintaining roads and streetlights, running hoardings and billboards on commercial basis, carrying out approval of plans for residential and commercial buildings, maintaining parks and playgrounds, tax collection on different heads, anti encroachment matters, fire fighting, storm drain water system and looking after water sewerage system jobs. Car charged parking system is also no exception.

Constitutional cover of LG system (i) defines Article 140 (A), Constitution of Pakistan 1973, each province shall, by law, establish a local government system and development, political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments.

But in contravention of this Article(s), Sindh government imposed Sindh Local Government Act-2012 amended SLGA-2013, which re imposed the LG System 1979 as in sheer violation of the Constitution sections.

KDA (Revival and Amendment ) Act 2016, Sindh Building Control (Amendment) Act 2013, Sindh Mass Transit Authority Act 2014, the Lyari Development Authority Act, 1993, Malir Development Authority Act, 1993, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board Act 1996, Sindh Food Authority Act, 2016 and Sindh Environmental Protection Act, 2014 are instances of violations.

Such Constitutional violations could be dealt under Article 6 of the Constitution, according to M Nasir Advocate Supreme Court was of the view.

Article 7, in Constitution defines federal government, (Parliament), Provincial Government (Assembly) and such local or other authorities in Pakistan, which by law are empowered to impose tax .

Article 32 provides that the state shall encourage local government institutions and Article 32 (i) provides that the state shall decentralise the government institutions so as to facilitate expeditious disposal of its business in order to meet the convenience and requirements of the public.

According to 2013 census, it describes population growth of 3.5 percent, in an area of 3,600 square kilometers, urban area 1,800 sq kms with road network of 10,000 kms.