“Karachi is a big and important city and it hosts a large population. However, the mayor cannot initiate a project costing more than Rs 20 million (m),” said Mayor Waseem Akhtar on Wednesday. While talking to a delegation comprising participants of 26th Mid Career Management Course in National Institute of Management, (NIM) Islamabad at his office, the mayor said that Karachi’s transportation issue would remain unsolved until a federal level policy was formulated. He added that powers should be granted to just one organisation. He further said that the metropolis was divided into islands and no one could interfere in anyone else’s jurisdiction. Speaking of the challenges Karachi Metropolitan Corporation was facing, Mayor Waseem said that the funds received from the government were not even enough to cover salaries and pensions of KMC staff. “These problems can be solved upto a great extent if octorizila tax share is fully released to KMC,” he asserted. The delegation was led by Director General of NIM, Dr SafdarSohail and Chief Instructor Fauzia Choudhry whereas Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Syed SaifurRehman and senior director coordination, Masood Alam were also present. Meanwhile, Waseem Akhtar at a ceremony gave away ‘Young Social Leader Award’ to social worker, Simran Salman Qureshi on her project ‘Zindagi’ to provide affordable screening aimed at early detection of ovarian cancer in women from low socio economic background. Karachi Mayor said that gave him great pleasure as the Mayor of Karachi that this initiative was taken by the youth to help prevent and detect this disease those areas of the metropolis where there was a lack of awareness regarding ovarian cancer. “On behalf of citizens of Karachi I would like to award her, announced the mayor. He said that young students of Karachi Grammar School (KGS) started social work in a very early age and set a good example for youth. He said that the youth had a key role in serving ailing humanity especially those who could not afford to pay for huge medical expenditures. Simran Salman said that Zindagi had been started due to her personal interest in ovarian cancer as her mother was also a patient. The project has been started at KorangiLandhi Medical Centre. Aim of project is to provide affordable screening for early detection of ovarian cancer via blood tests and ultrasound. There are 2 clinics set up at Korangi Landhi Medical Centre for seeing patients, and approximately 30 patients are managed weekly at clinics from low socio economic background. “About 300 patients have been screened since start of project and we have managed to detect 25 patients with increased CA 125 levels which is a marker test for ovarian cancer,” said Simran. “The cost of test is Rs 3,000, but at Zindagi it is subsidised and patients if they can afford to pay can avail the services for Rs 700. If they cannot afford it, we do it free of cost,” she explained. “The funding for project came from private donors, ” shared Simran Salman. Published in Daily Times, October 18th 2018.