Daily Times

Sadly it didn’t take long at all for the Karachi rescue plan to become just one more of those items over which PTI and PPP exchange accusations in front of the whole world. It was all very well till the prime minister visited Karachi on Saturday and announced the historic Rs1.1 trillion Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP). Everybody liked everything that was presented in the plan and agreed that implementation of this plan was perhaps the best shot that Karachi would have at returning to anything even resembling normalcy for what is the business hub of the country. The trouble started when the PPP chairman said, in what appeared to be a recorded video, that the Sindh government would provide Rs800 billion, or the lion’s share, of the total amount.

It turns out that PTI doesn’t think so at all and sooner than anybody could give the matter much thought the ruling party’s own team was out in front of the press claiming that the centre would in fact provide 62 percent of the finance. How could it be that such matters can be disagreed upon like this after all the details have clearly been finalised? And why are the two parties still issuing one rebuttal after another? Didn’t they see that their blame game did not impress the people of the suffering city, or any other city for that matter, at all because what was needed was action on the ground not to find out whose fault everything was in the first place?

It was something of a breath of fresh air when PM Imran Khan announced the package in Karachi. It seemed that the two parties had, for once, decided to hold their own fights for another time and work together for what was far more important. Yet however happy that made everybody, there were also warnings that all stakeholders would have to be careful about the way forward. The proof of the pudding lies in the eating, after all, and you can have the finest plans in the world but if implementation is a problem even before it has properly begun then it doesn’t bring much good to too many people. Hopefully all these problems will be worked out before the project gets stalled. The situation is already so precarious that such stops and starts just cannot be afforded. *