KARACHI: After allegations and counter-allegations from both sides of the aisle, the Sindh Assembly on Monday unanimously asked the federal government to fulfil its promise regarding the revival of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR).

“This house asks the Sindh government to approach the federal government to ensure [that] its commitment to the people of Karachi regarding the Karachi Circular Railway [is realised],” said a motion moved by Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sadia Javed.

The mover said the federal government had “deliberately” delayed the plan to revive the KCR.

She said Islamabad was not doing its share of the job, thus, it was going against its commitment with the people of Karachi vis-a-vis the KCR’s revival.

Minister says work to survey and regularise katchi abadis across province is under way

Transport and Mass Transit Minister Awais Qadir Shah asked three major opposition parties — Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Grand Democratic Alliance, all partners in the federal government — to influence their colleagues ruling Islamabad to play their part for the revival of the project.

Railways slammed for not giving RoW

He said it was the federal government which could give sovereign guarantee to a Chinese company. Besides, handing over of the Karachi Urban Transport Authority to the Sindh government was still far from reality.

Additionally, he asked the opposition parties to help the PPP’s Sindh government in convincing Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid to notify the right of way (RoW) for the KCR project. “You get us right of way, we will start fencing of the railway property.”

He requested Prime Minister Imran Khan to provide maximum funding and due rights to a city which was the powerhouse of the country’s economy.

Referring to a frequently discussed report prepared by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in the house, the minister said it also discussed the removal of human settlement en route KCR for which a big chunk of money was required.

He said his party’s stance was clear, which it had reiterated in the courts as well ie mandatory settlement of the affected people before uprooting and bulldozing of their houses. These people should be compensated and settled elsewhere.

Referring to a statement by the Railways minister in which he alleged that the Sindh government was not cooperating, Mr Shah said he had repeatedly conveyed to the federal minister that the provincial government was ready to work with him.

He told the house about a recent meeting with the Railways authorities in which the latter utterly refused to give the right of way for the project. “How can we float tenders for fencing the KCR land when they have flatly refused to give us the right of way?

“We are writing a letter to the federal government again for getting the right of way,” he said.

He said during a recent meeting of the Karachi Infrastructure Development Company Limited (KIDCL) at the Governor House, Prime Minister Khan had told Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah in unequivocal terms that the federal government would arrange for buses and computer system for the Green Line project before handing it to the provincial authorities.

Otherwise, he said, the provincial government had allocated funds for the procurement of computer system and buses.

Number of houses on KCR land doubled

Opposition Leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi had earlier said the provincial government should clearly tell the house what it wanted from the federal government.

He appreciated JICA for conducting a $10 million study for the project, in which it identified seven corridors and routes and chalked out a mass transit scheme duly linked up with the KCR.

He said the number of households on encroached land was over 4,000 when JICA filed its study in 2010 and now it had swelled to 8,000. He said it took nine years for the Sindh government to issue tenders for fencing of the KCR land.

MQM-P’s Mohammad Hussain and PTI’s Umar Omari said the adjournment motion in question should have not been admitted in the first place.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani confronted them, asking them to sit down as the motion was passed by the house and the members should speak over the subject.

PPP’s Raja Razzaq and Liaquat Askani said the people who would be affected by the project should be adequately compensated and settled elsewhere.

MQM-P’s Jawed Hanif said because of the “cold shoulder” by the PPP government, JICA transferred its funds for the KCR project to a project in Bangladesh.

Another MQM-P lawmaker, Khwaja Izharul Hasan, said that his party, being a coalition partner of the federal government, would ensure that the KCR would be revived.

GDA’s Nand Kumar and Nusrat Abbasi, MQM-P’s Rashid Khilji, PPP’s Shamim Akhtar, Murtaza Baloch and PTI’s Shehzad Qureshi and Arsalan Taj also spoke.

Regularisation of katchi abadis

Earlier, furnishing a statement and replies during Question Hour, Katchi Abadis Minister Saeed Ghani said that the survey and regularisation of katchi abadis was being done by the Sindh Katchi Abadis Authority under the SKA Act.

To a question, he said that the projects of the Slums Infrastructure Development Programme in Mirpurkhas, Thatta, Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushahro Feroz and Karachi had been completed with the cost of Rs44m during fiscal year 2016-2017.

In reply to another query, Mr Ghani said that no appointment was made in the SKA during 2016-2017.

To a question, he said that a Rs40m project of provision of basic facilities of sewerage and drains in different slums was to be completed by June 2019.

Published in Dawn, January 22nd, 2019