KARACHI, Dec 30: The consultants and the city government officials giving a presentation on the proposed Master Plan 2020 had a difficult time satisfying an audience that was technically sound and raised specific questions regarding different subjects and the areas that have been left out of the planning process or purposely neglected as some social activists alleged.

Very little time was allotted to some panelists to give their views on the Master Plan 2020 presentation given by Naveed Zaheer, a consultant and city government official Iftikhar Kaimkhani at the consultation organized by the Institute of Architects Pakistan on Saturday.

Giving details, they said a single set of regulations and rules were proposed for land use in the entire city regardless of who owned the land. This would ensure uniform laws, built environment etc in all parts of the city.

They said further consultations with other stakeholders will be held before the plan is finalised, to obtain their input. It will be evaluated annually to check whether issues were being resolved and problems facing the masses removed.

Mr Zaheer said the plan entails framework and policy guidelines based on socio-economic structure, existing land use and future population projections. Various studies will be undertaken to analyse and propose projections in the road transportation sector, water supply, sewerage and other utilities and given a legal cover by the city government to make it an enforceable document managing the city’s growth in future years.

He said plans had also been drawn to improve living conditions in the katchi abadis by asking builders and developers to construct high rises of four to six floors. The land thus vacated could be used as open spaces or for commercial purposes.

There were suggestions for allotment of plots under a new scheme as presently, speculators purchased the plots and prices were driven beyond deserving people’s reach. They said over 150,000 acres were required in the future.

They said four ring roads were being planned to provide signal free access to commuters to move quickly around the city. New water supply sources were being identified to meet the water scarcity. Pre-treated deep-sea disposal of industrial waste was being recommended. A landfill site in Thatta had been identified. Development and conservation of water front, mangroves and heritage of the city were proposed and ecotourism prescribed to provide relief to entertainment starved Karachiites. The conditions of existing schools and hospitals would also be improved, the consultant said.

Noman Ahmad of NED University said governance was a major problem of the city. Over 70 per cent of the solid waste was not being collected, water was brought in from far off sources and a lot of it was wasted due to leakages. The sewerage system was not working efficiently, the bulk of sewerage went untreated to the sea polluting the marine environment, land use change was rampant. Infrastructure was not updated even in Lyari – one of the oldest areas of the city, illegally constructed buildings were being regularised. To improve the situation, good governance is needed, he added. Arif Hassan of Urban Resource Centre said a plan was as good as the institution that would implement it. He said this plan had many factual errors and various studies done on inner city areas, the kutchi abadis etc had probably not even been referred to. The economic survey for the plan had also been conducted on only 5,000 families, which was a very small sample size.

He said over 50 per cent of the city’s population lived in kutchi abadis and the plan did not deal with their problems. The transport problem of the poor was that there was no mass transit system, the coastal belt was being devastated and stripped off its natural beauty, he added.

Roland D'Souza of Shehri said while it was globally accepted that development must not damage the environment, here development was being carried out at the cost of environmental degradation and business interests were given priority over the society. He said that a majority of Karachiites were poor, lived in slums and did not own a vehicle there were hardly any pedestrian streets, and signal free thoroughfares were being given priority. He said planning in this city was being done for the rich, while the poor continued to suffer.

Other speakers said Karachi was the only mega city where public transport system was controlled by private transporters. They said loans equivalent to a little over $1.6 billion had been taken by Karachiites to purchase vehicles, causing congestion on roads, while loans for housing were given less priority. Illegally constructed buildings were regularized crippling the fragile infrastructure on one hand and encourage the builders mafia to further destroy what was left of the city.

Masood-ul-Hassan Jafri, Arif Bilgaumi, Habib Fidaali, Akber Baloch, Hasnain Lotia, Ejaz Ahad and others spoke at the meeting conducted by Ayesha T. Haq.