ISLAMABAD: SC wants municipal plans for Karachi implemented
By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered strict implementation of the Oct 5 decisions taken at a meeting to manage municipal services by harmonising the working of all civic bodies in the country’s biggest cosmopolitan city by strictly adhering to the Karachi Strategic Development Plan -- 2020.
Presided over by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan, the Oct 5 meeting was held in compliance of the apex court directions to evolve a mechanism of managing municipal services in Karachi in an efficient, coordinated and effective manner through a fully-fledged organisational set-up.
The Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice of the dilapidated conditions of roads and sewerage in Karachi, especially in Clifton, on a complaint by Dr Asim Hussain of the Ziauddin Medical University.
A four-member bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi and Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan directed the authorities in Karachi to ensure complete execution of the decisions reached during its meeting.
Horrible picture
Dr Asim had painted a horrible, battered and filthy picture of Karachi by highlighting road and sewerage conditions in Clifton, particularly in its Block 8, that had added to miseries of the people.
“If the situation is correct, it reflects gross negligence, acute inefficiency and utter failure in the discharge of duties on part of the Clifton Cantonment Board as well as the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board,” Justice Rana Bhagwandas had observed in his order while summoning reports from the chief executive officer of the Clifton Cantonment Board, the commander of the Clifton Cantonment Board and the chairman/administrator of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.
In response, the Clifton Cantonment Board administration revamped Blocks 8 and 9 by spending Rs152 million that also helped resolve the chronic problem of accumulated water turning into ponds during the last monsoon spell.
It is a common complaint among the citizens of Karachi that monsoon rains bring miseries to them and bring life in the economic nerve centre to a grinding halt. The situation also exposes the incompetence of the relevant civic agencies as usually the main roads turn into knee-high streams with storm-water drainage system clogged. Pools of standing sewage also cause the outbreak of diseases such as conjunctivitis, gastro-enteritis and skin allergies.
On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney-General Raja Mohammad Irshad informed the bench about the decisions of the Oct 5 meeting in detail that asked to constitute a board of governors (BoG) for managing municipal services in Karachi in a proper way. Headed by the Karachi city nazim, the BoG would include heads of different civic agencies working in Karachi.
Civilian populations
The decision includes the exclusion of civilian areas from the cantonment boards through a notification by the Defence Ministry. In this regard a survey will soon be conducted to identify such areas by a committee comprising the director for military lands and cantonments, the executive district officers of revenue, works, services, MPGO and CDGK.
This committee will also recommend identifying functions of federal agencies such as the Karachi Port Trust, Port Qasim Authority, Pakistan Railways and Civil Aviation Authority since these departments have also assumed the role of municipal bodies.
Dr Qazi Khalid, additional advocate-general of Sindh, was also present on the occasion.
The total areas of six cantonments in Karachi is 156 square kilometres with a civil population of 0.75 million. The total area under cantonments’ jurisdiction is 4.5 per cent of the total area of Karachi City District with only five per cent population living there.
