KARACHI: Around 162 parks in the city are in very poor condition due to the negligence of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).
The corporation has also failed to develop any new parks in the city in the last six years practically stopping development work on parks and horticulture sites.
In the past two years, around 24 DGs of P&HD have been transferred and currently the department is being run by Abdullah Mushtaq, an OPS official.
According to estimates, around 18 medium/miscellaneous sized parks have been destroyed and the names of some of them are Umer Sharif Park, ST-12 Park, New Clifton Garden, Hosh Muhammad Shaheeedi Park, Aunty Park, Moin Akhter Park, and Ameer Khusroo Park.
Other affected parks include Sardar Ali Sabri Park, Gadap Town Park, Fatima Surayya Bajiya Park-1, ST-18 park, ST-20 park, ST 30 park, Model Park, Bagh-e-Ibne Qasim Park, Benazir Bhutto Park, Gulshan-e-Jinnah Park, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Aziz Bhatti Park, Jheel Park, Family Park Orange, Sir Syed Park, and National Park Gutter Baghicha.
Around 42 model/family parks, built during the tenure of two former city nazims, are also on the brink of destruction. These parks were handed over to respective Town Municipals Administration for supervision and further development but TMAs failed to carry out their responsibilities in this regard.
“For the development and rehabilitation of these 42 parks, P&HD has demanded Rs 10 million for each park,” he said, adding that if funds are available we can reshape these parks within five months.
The P&HD houses 1782 employees including 800 gardeners, while the annual budget of these parks stands at Rs 529 million and revenue sources are around Rs 376 million.