KARACHI: City nazim apprises president of plans: Sharea Faisal alternatives
By Azizullah Sharif
KARACHI, May 29: City Nazim Niamatullah Khan has said that he has apprised President Pervez Musharraf of the city government’s two different proposals for providing a route to serve as an alternative to Sharea Faisal. The nazim, while addressing a news conference at his North Nazimabad residence, said one of the options was to build an elevated road along Sharea Faisal which could be used on commercial basis by introducing toll tax from the users. The other option was to construct a parallel road on Malir River, he added.
When asked if the city government was oblivious of the sufferings of people and motorists whenever a VVIP visited the city, he replied that the proposals were aimed at mitigating the sufferings.
The proposals could be implemented on a BOT (build, operate and transfer) basis, he said, adding that the same had been put forward during a presentation he made to the president on the Tameer-i-Karachi Programme (TKP) at the Governor’s House on Saturday.
Expressing his gratitude to the president for always encouraging and applauding him in undertaking development works in the city, the nazim said: “it is a matter of pride for me that the president had publicly described the TKP as ‘Niamat’s brainchild’ and asked others to let me do the work by not creating hindrances.”
Referring to Saturday’s presentation, he said that he told the president that a number of schemes with a collective cost of Rs20 billion had been designed by the city government and different stakeholders of the city under the TKP. The president was informed that certain other projects costing Rs5 billion were to be financed by the city government.
The nazim said that former chairman of the Steel Mill Col Afzal had agreed to contribute towards the construction of Rs2 billion Quaidabad Flyover and a road linking the National Highway with the Super Highway, with a cost of Rs5b. However, he added, the new chairman seemed a little bit reluctant to finance the link road project.
DAMAN-I-KOH: Mentioning about the city government’s ongoing project of Daman-i-Koh Park, being built in North Nazimabad on the pattern of the similar one in Islamabad, he said that it was an irony that some leaders of a Sindh coalition party were bent upon creating impediments in the project by propagating that by doing so, the city government would destroy the reservoir existing in the project site. As a matter of fact, he argued, the reservoir in question had been lying abandoned for two decades now.
“The city government will go ahead with the Daman-i-Koh project as there is a dearth of recreation spots in the metropolis,” he declared, saying that people from all parts of the city would throng the park once it was opened to them.
At the outset, Niamatullah Khan voiced his protest over the grant of Rs1 billion funds to he MQM MNAs and MPAs for development works, arguing that the legislators of other parties stood discriminated upon by the move. He vowed to support legislators of other parties if they came out with demand for an equal treatment in this regard.
The nazim said he was ready to work jointly with the provincial government for the cause of making Karachi a model city, and offered his services to the coalition “so that the dream of making the country a truly Islamic welfare state is realised.”
The City Council’s Senior Presiding Officer, Muslim Pervez, and the nazim’s coordinators Ansar Razi, Abid Ilyas and Qazi Sadruddin were also present on the occasion.
