KARACHI: People urged to take their problems to area nazims
KARACHI, March 14: City Nazim Naimatullah Khan has said that there should not be any cause of confrontation between the district and provincial governments because the powers and scope of working as well as the nature of work for both governments are different from each other.
He was speaking at a dinner hosted for the visiting participants of the workshop of National Defence College, Islamabad, on Saturday night. In this society, he said, people used to approach the centre for solution of minor and basic problems whereas the basic function of MNAs and MPAs was to carry out legislation.
The masses should be told to approach nazims for their areas' problems instead of senators and members of national and provincial assemblies, he said.
City Nazim pointed out that he had remained the Amir of Jamaat-i-Islami, but he had been serving the people of Karachi by remaining above the party affiliation for the last two years. He said that nazims of six towns did not belong to Jamaat-i-Islami, but, they had no complaint against him.
Mr Khan said that when the city government came into being there was no infrastructure, particularly in industrial areas. Whatever was laid earlier had been destroyed, he said.
The city government, he added, started work on laying proper infrastructure in industrial areas, which would cost Rs2.5 billion. Moreover, he informed the guests that the PC-1 of over Rs12 billion works had been approved for city's sewerage improvement.
He told the visitors that the construction work for the world class roads in Karachi had started and not a single of these roads suffered damage during the last heavy rains.
Naimatullah Khan said that the development carried out during the last two years did not find a match in the last 15 years. He said that major schemes were completed with quality and at lesser cost resulting in saving of millions.
Since the inception of city government, he said that 20 new colleges were established where 8,000 students were being imparted education. Referring to the negative and sensational propaganda by western media against Karachi, he said that the law and order had been improved and cited the example of cricket match between India and Pakistan.
Moreover, he added, the investment offers worth Rs25 billion for the mass transit programme made by six multinational companies showed the improvement in law and order.
Speaking on the occasion, Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan said that in the beginning people had not much knowledge about the city government while the resources were also limited.
However, he added, the performance of city government kept going up and the city council passed policy resolutions for the city's development. At present, he described the city government's performance in transport, education, health and other sectors as outstanding.
The vice-principal of National Defence College, Maj Gen Khalid Mahmood, said that if conditions in this city remained under control the whole country would progress. He observed that people came here from every corner of the country and earned livelihood for their families. He said that Karachi having a broad heart accepted people from the entire country.
Khalid Mahmood said that development works being carried out here were quite visible and a positive change could be seen. He acknowledged that the condition of roads had improved. If this pace of progress was maintained, he said, the city would once again become a model city for the whole region.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued here on Sunday, City Nazim Naimatullah Khan thanked the citizens for demonstrating sportsman spirit at the National Stadium as well as maintaining law and order in the city during the cricket match. -APP/PPI
