Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Karachi on 5 September and announced an ambitious Karachi Transformation Plan costing Rs.1100billion which includes the daunting problems of drinking water supply, sewage treatment plan, solid waste management, removal of encroachments from natural waterways and flood drains and circular railway track – to be implemented by a joint committee of the federal and provincial governments headed by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah with the help of the Corps Commander and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).It was announced that the funds would be shared by the federal and provincial governments by 62 and 38% respectively.

The local government accounts have escaped serious audit since decades because of the blatant indulgence of both parties in pilferage of funds, illegal appointments and appropriation of state lands

Genuinely titled as the Queen of Asia and the city of lights, Karachi was a beautiful town of an urbane population of 460,000 in 1947. It rapidly grew into an ungovernable mega city with the massive induction of immigrants and the unhindered migration of people from other federal units into it from 1947-1962 being the capital and later during the One-Unit the economic and financial hub of the country. Its growth was disproportionate to its sluggish municipal and civic infrastructure and no government paid attention to the problematic situation Karachi was getting into.

For a number of reasons, many experts are skeptical about the success of the Transformation Plan, the foremost being the huge trust-deficit between the federal and the provincial governments and the raging battle between the PPP and MQM for the electoral control of the city. Now the PTI has also entered this long contested race. Since 1988, the PPP and MQM have been part of the problems of Karachi. They have been engaged in a political relationship of hate-and-love contracting marriages of convenience only to fall into violent antagonism. For crumbs of power, the MQM has, since inception, been shamelessly sleeping with other unrepresentative governments in the province. All the political governments including the PPP with MQM as its active coalition partner have callously picked up at the precious resources of the Metropolis feathering their nests without doing something worthwhile to improve its infrastructure.

With MQM surging to the national scene as the sole representative of the city after 1988 elections, Karachi descended into unprecedented and frequent spells of political violence, bloodshed, lockdowns, land grabbing, appropriation of amenity plots, China cutting, encroachment on state and railway lands, natural waterways, unplanned expansions. This distressing spectacle continued without any relent until recently when it grew bigger for its shoes, and was cut to size by the security establishment. There however has been no change in its ethnically and linguistically biased and confrontational politics.

The electoral gains of the PPP in Karachi have been peripheral. The local government systems given by it since 1988 were carefully gerrymandered and skewed to maintain the supremacy of the provincial administration over the local governments in cities and towns resulting always in paradoxical situations in Karachi and Hyderabad where the MQM has been winning the mayoral offices and chairmanship of the Municipal Committees with endless controversy over powers and allocation of funds. The halfhearted democratic measures have always aggravated the malaise afflicting our mega cities.

The local government accounts have escaped serious audit since decades because of the blatant indulgence of both parties in pilferage of funds, illegal appointments and appropriation of state lands. While most of the senior MQM leaders have slipped out of the country, half of the local government officers of Sindh including two former Secretaries for local bodies were behind bars in NAB cases. They were released on bail or as a result of plea bargaining with NAB. Interestingly, hundreds of local government and provincial civil service officers have entered into plea bargaining with the NAB, and reappointed against lucrative positions. The list of such officers was being compiled by the Government of Sindh under a directive of the Sindh High Court.

The MQM’s Mayor of Karachi completed his tenure on 30 August. He passed his tenure crying endlessly over lack of powers and scarcity of funds though he reportedly received Rs.104 billion in four years. Strangely, who was stopping him from improving the sewage system, garbage lifting and clearing the flood drains of the city? The Supreme Court of Pakistan recently observed ‘there are 20000 employees in the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) who are regularly receiving their emoluments’. It is yet to be verified whether these are genuine employees working in the KMC or ghost ones. In fact, the local government bodies throughout the province have been over-staffed with hundreds of workers and sympathizers of the PPP and MQM.

The provincial government has acquired notoriety for incompetence and corruption. Syed Murad Ali Shah is the titular head of the provincial administration. The real power stems from Bilawal and Zardari mansions. Certainly, the wily inmates of these mansions will look for a quid pro quo for their willing and full cooperation in the implementation of the Kara chi Transformation plan. The hapless citizens of Karachi, having enough of the PPP and MQM, are pinning their hopes on the federal government and the National Disaster Management Authority manned by serving army officers. The Karachi Transformation Plan is a litmus test for them. Their success will win them the hearts and minds of the citizens of Karachi, and their failure in this daunting assignment will mire the reputation of the entire institution. Hopefully, they will not disappoint the nation.

The author was a member of the Foreign Service of Pakistan and he has authored two books