KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Saturday said Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) could only be started when the federal government agreed to hand over right of way to the provincial government.

Speaking to the media after inaugurating the one-window facility for automation of construction permits at the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) under the ‘Ease of Doing Business’, he said he would implement the apex court’s order in letter and spirit once his office received the order regarding the KCR project and removal of encroachments.

The CM was accompanied by Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, Planning and Development (P&D) chairperson Naheed Shah, home secretary Kazi Kabir, SBCA director general Iftikhar Qaimkhani and others.

About the launch of the KCR project within 30 days as directed by the Supreme Court, the chief minister claimed that the federal government was reluctant to hand over right of way to the provincial government for the project.

“In 2016, I had written a letter to the prime minister with the request to issue directive for handing over Right of Way (ROW) for KCR and then kept making similar requests repeatedly but all of them fell on deaf ears,” he said, adding that in such circumstances how it was possible to start the project?

He said whenever he, as well [Pakistan Peoples Party] leadership, raised the voice over federal government’s failure in achieving revenue collection targets, federal ministers “started reciting that no NRO would be given to the opposition”.

“Who has asked them for an NRO? We were just reminding you to improve your efficiency and achieve your revenue targets; because of your inefficiency, the provinces are facing financial hardships,” CM Shah argued.

About rampant illegal construction in Karachi, he said: “Those 70 per cent illegal buildings had not been built in the last 10 years. There should be a survey of such buildings and their occupants so that alternative arrangements can be made before taking any action,” he added.

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About the recent statement of Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, the chief minister said he had good working relationship with him. “The governor has a constitutional role to play and if he is working within his specified parameters, there will be no issue,” he said.

Mr Shah claimed that the federal government had failed to deliver and this had caused unrest, which was visible everywhere in society.

“Not a single person in the country is happy and satisfied with the policies of the federal government; everyone is grinding under the burden of price-hike and inflation,” he claimed.

Earlier, the chief minister inaugurated SBCA’s ‘Single window facility e-construct online construction permit approval system’ by pressing the key of a computer at the authority’s office.

He saw various units of the automated system and received briefings about them from the officials concerned.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2019