Daily Times

Sir: Mubarak is a fishing village in Karachi, located along the shore of the Arabian Sea. The village is 30 kilometres away from Karachi with a population of more than 10,000 people. Karachi’s second largest fishermen locality — Mubarak village — does not have basic facilities including jetties, gas, health and education, despite the fact that it existed even before British rule.

In 2009, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah announced developing Mubarak along modern lines and construction work was started. After the chief minister’s announcement, the government began its spadework but suddenly the construction stopped midway. Nearly 50 percent development work took place to provide electricity and sewerage facilities to half of the population but the rest of the people are still facing key civic problems because of work closure. Despite provision of funds by the government, work on the project stopped without apparent reason. At present, the village presents a primitive look for being without sewerage, electricity and road infrastructure. The chief minister had also announced providing lease documents for houses to fishermen but only 10 percent residents have received official papers. Another project was to expand Mubarak village’s dam and construct a harbour but these have not been launched. Similarly, a maternity home was built in the village but the medical facility is still without staff. We demand the government resume construction work on these incomplete projects. We also appeal to the government to launch a probe into the misuse of funds allocated for the project.

SARFARAZ HAROON

Karachi