KARACHI: Two senior Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders said on Friday that Prime Minister Imran Khan would announce a comprehensive package for Karachi in his upcoming visit to the provincial metropolis.

Senior Vice President of PTI’s Karachi chapter Hunaid Lakhani and MNA Aftab Siddiqui told a press conference that the recommendations of the package had been worked out by a committee formed under the chairmanship of Sindh Governor Imran Ismail.

Mr Lakhani is also the chief of the PTI’s ‘Chamakta-Damakta Karachi’, or Shining Karachi, campaign and Mr Siddiqui has been elected as an MNA from NA-247 constituency in a recent by-election.

At the presser, they said that although maintaining sanitation and ensuring availability of water was the basic responsibility of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, the PTI had taken the initiative to mitigate the people’s miseries by launching the ‘Shining Karachi campaign’ on Jan 1, 2019.

Mr Lakhani said that the people of Karachi had given their mandate to the PTI and it was imperative for the party to solve their basic problems.

The party highlights achievements during one month of its ‘Chamakta-Damakta Karachi’ campaign

“We have taken the initiative and planned to install 300 RO (reverse osmosis) plants in water-starved localities,” he said, adding that so far half a dozen RO plants had been installed in Razzaqabad, Saeedabad, Baldia Town and other areas and over a dozen were in the process of installation in Qayyumabad, Zia Colony in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

He said that besides working on some mega Karachi projects, including water and transport system and Green Line, a committee headed by Governor Ismail was also formed and it had finalised its recommendations for early implementation to be submitted to the prime minister during his visit to Karachi later this month.

He also said that a PTI complaint cell had received 234 complaints mostly pertaining to garbage and sewage problems due to the negligence of the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and KWSB, which came under the control of the Sindh government.

He said that the KWSB and SSWMB were not discharging their responsibility and PTI volunteers had solved 115 complaints on their own.

Mr Lakhani said that Karachi was getting 400 MGD water from Dhabeji only and 60 per cent of the water was wasted.

MNA Aftab Siddiqui said since 1947 it was for the first time that Karachi had given such a huge mandate to a political party that had given a large representation of ministers belonging to the city in the federal government.

He said although water supply and sewage issues pertained to the local and Sindh governments, they were not paying due attention to the civic problems. “So, we have decided to strive to solve pressing issues on a self-help basis.”

He lamented that the Sindh government had failed to add a single drop of water during its 12-year rule in the province.

He said on the instruction of the prime minister, PTI MNAs and MPAs were working on pressing issues in their respective constituencies so that funds to be given to them could be utilised to meet the immediate needs.

He said that the old sewerage and water supply lines had become obsolete in many localities and were causing a serious water crisis which the provincial government had failed to address.

He said virtually the city of Karachi had been destroyed during the last 30 years.

In reply to a question, he said that he did not see the completion of the K-IV water project, whose earlier deadline was December 2018, even in next two to three years.

He warned that the city could witness a law and order problem if no measures to meet the increasing water requirement and to check the water mafia from stealing water were taken.

Published in Dawn, February 2nd, 2019