KARACHI, 4: According to Nazim Karachi Naimatullah Khan the city needs about five thousand large buses to solve it transport problem.

Speaking at an Iftar party in Korangi town, he acknowledged that the transport problem was one of the major problems faced by the residents of Karachi.

However, he said that these buses could not be brought to Karachi in a single lot due to financial constraints; therefore, the first batch of 200 buses would arrive in the city within the next few months.

He said that too many minibuses and wagons plied on Karachi roads causing traffic problems and accidents. This, he said, was the result of past misplanning. He urged the government to wave off excise duty on long buses for Karachi.

The Nazim said that President Gen Pervaiz Musharraf, during a recent meeting with all the district Nazims of Sindh in Islamabad, had termed Karachi and Lahore as the two most important cities of Pakistan and emphasised the need for solving the problems of these cities on a priority basis .

Naimatullah Khan said that he had informed the President about Karachi’s prime problems which include financial crisis, transport, conditions of roads, Katchi abadis (slums), solid waste management and inflow and outflow of water.

For the redressal of financial problems faced by the city government, the Nazim Karachi stressed the need to impose sea dues which is levying of 1% tax on actual value at all imports and getting 50 paisa per liter from petroleum companies for improvement of Karachi’s roads.

He said that though these suggestions had received a positive response from the authorities, they were yet to be implemented.

The Nazim also said that attention was needed to the solid waste management in Karachi as it was the only mega city without any solid waste management system; and the only solution for its revival was to privatise the whole process.

Regarding the cleanliness drive, he said that it would be relaunched after repairing the existing machinery with the cost of about Rs33.6 million.— PPI