Daily Times

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said Sunday a sum of at least $10 billion was required to modernise the southern port city’s infrastructure.

Shah made the remarks on a special transmission of a private news channel to discuss Karachi’s problems with the representatives of main political parties in the city.

“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,” he said, noting that a new monsoon spell entered on July 26-27, with the last heaviest rainfall recorded 1977.

“There was a lot of rain back in 2007, when nearly 200 people had died,” he noted.

The Sindh government has been giving funds to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to clean the nullahs in the city, the chief minister added.

“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. “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.

“In recent times, the responsibility to clean the storm drains lie with KMC and Sindh government has given money to clean the nullahs.”

The spokesperson for the Sindh government, Senator Murtaza Wahab, said he would identify the issues plaguing the metropolis rather than engage in mudslinging.

“Until and unless we all understand the challenges that Karachi faces, they cannot be resolved,” Wahab added.

CM Shah underlined 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.

In the past four years, a lot of work was done to clean the nullahs, he said, but that water 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.

The chief minister said he had met National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal a few days ago and was thankful to the body for clearing three nullahs in Karachi.

“The Supreme Court had ordered the NDMA to clear all the nullahs. When it rained again, the Gujjar nullah overflowed once more,” he noted.

Admitting that the KMC was short of funds, he said 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,” Shah said.

The CM also spoke of the recently-formed coordination committee, saying it comprised federal and provincial ministers and has had two meetings so far.

“Such committees have been set up in the past as well,” he said, noting that there was a dearth of communication between the government of Sindh and Centre.

“The committee will not bring administrative matters under discussions,” he stated. “It will not interfere in the administrative matters.”

Shah said the talks to make Kemari a district had already been ongoing. “There is no issue in creating new districts in Karachi,” he noted. “We have reservations that the highest-earning districts have ended up on one side.

“Karachi was not like this [in the past] but then unplanned commercial construction occurred in the city,” he said.

“Commercialising residential areas creates problems. It is not okay to expect that problems would be resolved by transforming residential areas into business zones,” he added.