KARACHI: Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani said on Monday that those affected by the ongoing operation against encroachments would not be left alone and soon they would be provided alternative places.

The minister made it clear that the Sindh government would not demolish any house and if the judiciary issued any such order the government would itself take up the matter in court.

“Implementation of the orders of the apex court is our responsibility but rehabilitation of the affectees is our top priority,” he assured a delegation of traders during a meeting held at the Commissioner House.

Saeed Ghani says the Sindh govt and Karachi mayor are on same page regarding drive against encroachments

The meeting was also attended by Mayor Wasim Akhtar, the commissioner, Information Adviser Murtaza Wahab and others.

Later, the minister also addressed a convention of the Sindh Tajir Ittehad at Arambagh.

3,500 KMC tenants to be given temporary structures

The minister was informed that according to the record of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, the number of affected traders who were paying rent to the KMC was 3,575.

The minister was told that a summary had been prepared for submission to the chief minister for a special grant to the KMC so that it could remove debris of the demolished shops, reconstruct footpaths, carry out patchwork and beautification of the city.

The minister said that the complete record, which the KMC had already prepared, of the traders affected by the anti-encroachment operation would be scrutinised by a committee headed by adviser Waqar Mehdi and comprising metropolitan commissioner and deputy commissioner South.

They would submit their recommendations within three days.

He said in the first phase 3,500 affected shopkeepers, who were tenants of the KMC, would be settled in temporary structures to be built in markets on the KMC’s and Sindh government’s available land.

In the second phase, he said, those traders who were not paying rent to the KMC but were running their business for the last many years would be provided a place to run their business.

The minister said that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had also expressed concern over the situation and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah during the cabinet meeting issued directives to ensure settlement of every affected person.

He announced that soon construction of markets would begin on the available vacant lands of the KMC and the Sindh government where affected traders would be rehabilitated.

No differences with mayor

He also disclosed that the Sindh government had started work regarding restoration of the Karachi Circular Railway to resettle all its affected shops and houses on the pattern of Lyari Expressway.

Similarly, he said, a three-member committee had also started working to submit its recommendations within three days to make parking system effective in the city and provide relief to the people of Karachi.

He gave assurance to the traders that no injustice would be done against them as the Karachi mayor and the Sindh government were on the same page from the very first day of the ongoing operation.

In reply to a question, the minister said that there were no differences between him and the mayor in finding solutions to the problems being faced by Karachi and the province.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2018