KARACHI, June 26: The funds promised by President Pervez Musharraf and Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad for the uplift of Lyari are yet to be released despite the fact that the financial year is nearing an end.

Admitting that no significant development work had been carried out in the town during the current fiscal, Town Nazim Abdul Khalique Juma said paucity of funds was one of the key factors that prevented execution of uplift works.

Because of an unjustifiable delimitation of the town in the previous local bodies elections, almost all commercial units and revenue generating areas had been excluded from its jurisdiction, he complained.

According to him, the illegal merger of Lyari’s old areas in Saddar Town has greatly weakened his town’s financial position and, as such, many development schemes are lying unattended.

Talking to Dawn, the nazim said the matter had been brought to the notice of President Musharraf during his brief visit to the town when monsoon rains had caused extensive damage to the town’s infrastructure.

Mr Juma said that the president had directed him to prepare a special development plan, with an estimate cost, for the town.

As per his instructions, the town administration prepared the plan and, accordingly, its PC-1 was sent to the provincial authorities through the city government for the release of the required funds, he added.

However, the nazim regretted, no funds were made available till date. Nor did the provincial or city government provide any grant-in-aid against the plan.

He recalled that the governor, during his recent visit to the town, had also announced a special package of Rs50 million for improvement of civic infrastructure in Lyari. But like similar pledges made by the provincial authorities earlier, the special package promise also remained unfulfilled.

Mr Juma said that the issue of delimitation of Lyari Town had been taken up by him recently with the chairman of the National Reconstruction Bureau, as well as the provincial election commissioner and chief secretary, with a request for inclusion of the town’s old commercial areas in the town’s jurisdiction so that the administration could cope with its financial constraints to some extent. Any progress in this regard, he added, was still to be achieved.