HYDERABAD, April 12: Karachi Nazim Naimatullah Khan has demanded a port city user tax on goods imported or exported through Karachi port, and urged the federal government to take a decision in this regard.

This proposal has been appreciated by President General Pervez Musharraf, but the provinces have opposed it, he said, speaking at a reception in Latifabad here on Sunday.

Mr Khan said that Pakistan's prosperity and development was directly linked with Karachi - the commercial and industrial hub of the country. Balochistan and the NWFP were getting royalties on gas and electricity, and Karachi must get benefits from its port also.

He stated that he had also proposed 50 paisa per kilo meter as road user tax which was taken away by the province. Since the devolution plan was handled by the centre, this decision must be taken by central government, he added.

The Karachi nazim urged the federal government to decide Karachi's share in this regard, saying that only then would he be able to pay honorarium to each councillor of the union council.

He said that problems of Hyderabad and Karachi were the same and his proposed system would definitely benefit people if bottlenecks were removed. Describing the union council as the backbone of the devolution plan, he said UC nazims kept complaining about lack of financial powers.

Mr Khan noted that UC councillors were underpaid and faced economic problems. He said he had proposed port city user tax and road user tax to enable him to pay honoraria to 3,800 UC councillors of 178 UCs and to help improve the infrastructure of Karachi.

He vowed to make Karachi a model city, and said he was trying to implement a master plan in Karachi because none of the three previous plans had been implemented.

Criticizing the western media for presenting Karachi as a city of terrorists and the hub of terrorism, Mr Khan said that had it been correct, he would not have been inviting tenders from foreign investors, involving billions of rupees.

He quoted different mega projects being executed in Karachi and said that he had presented a Rs20.5 billion budget for the City District Government Karachi while the defunct Karachi Metropolitan Corporation had presented a budget of not more than Rs4 billion to Rs5 billion.

Mr Khan further said that he had opposed Karachi Port Trust's right over lands in Clifton, Boating Basin, etc. on the ground that the KPT was allocated land only along the beach to handle cargo.

He pointed out that of the Rs29 billion Karachi package, Rs12 billion had been contributed by stakeholders like the KPT and the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

Zila Nazim Makhdoom Rafik Zaman called for creating post of vice chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) for solving the problems of district governments and to supervise funding to the UCs. He recommended the name of the Karachi nazim for the proposed post.

Mr Zaman said that blockade of funding could lead to failure of any government, and added that unless sewerage problems were solved, construction of roads was useless. Zila Naib Nazim Nawab Rashid Ali Khan came hard on bureaucrats and blamed them for sabotaging the present system.