KARACHI: Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Zaidi on Friday inaugurated the second phase of the federal government-sponsored Clean Karachi campaign from Lyari.

However, unlike the first phase, this time he did not give any deadline to lift the garbage from the city, saying the move was “target bound” instead of “time bound”.

Speaking at a press conference in Lyari along with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s federal and provincial lawmakers, the minister appreciated the role of Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and newly appointed Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Shah for their cooperation in the campaign.

Federal Minister Ali Zaidi vows to ‘name and shame’ litterbugs and polluters

‘Name and shame’

“We have a two-pronged strategy in the second phase,” Mr Zaidi said. “In the first one we will appeal to the people of Karachi to expose through social media every individual or group or business organisation which is contributing to this mess. For instance if you see any individual throwing garbage on a road or witness any industry discharging untreated sewage into the sea, just share their name, pictures and details over social media with hashtag name and shame. We will send it to media houses and expose them all across Pakistan.”

As part of the second strategy, he said, the campaign would focus on all garbage dumps. It would lift all garbage from those sites and transport them to landfill sites, he added.

The federal minister also asked the people of Karachi to identify all such sites and help the government to clean them.

The federal government-initiated campaign to clean Karachi was launched earlier this month with the first target to de-silt all storm-water drains before Eidul Azha.

The Clean Karachi drive was launched on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan in close partnership with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-led local government set-up and federal institutions like Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and National Logistics Cell. Mr Zaidi of the PTI had announced the campaign last month in Islamabad.

The issue of cleanliness in Karachi often brings the Pakistan Peoples Party-led Sindh government under serious criticism since it has been ruling the province for the past 11 years and enjoying the control of key civic institutions like the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, Sindh Solid Waste Management Board and Sindh Building Control Authority.

While launching the second phase of the campaign, the federal minister sounded quite satisfied with the success of the first phase as he claimed to have cleaned all major storm drains.

“Now the second phase is not time-bound and we are not setting any deadline for this one,” he said. “We will be on ground and keep moving with our campaign until every district and street of the city is cleaned. That’s why we are launching this phase from Lyari, which looks like a war-torn area due to negligence of the past representatives of this oldest neighbourhood. We will make this town clean in the shortest possible time.”

He said that FWO and Karachi Port Trust (KPT) were managing an independent bank account where different individuals and organisations were giving their donations.

He said so far it had received Rs50 million from Habib Bank Limited, Rs20m from K-Electric, Rs10m from Jubilee Insurance and Rs5m from a Chinese company.

“I want to personally thank Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and LG Minister Nasir Hussain Shah for their cooperation,” said Mr Zaidi. “Nasir Shah has assured [us] of full cooperation and even called a meeting to devise a strategy to play their role in this campaign. Similarly, Murad Ali Shah has launched the Blue Jacket Campaign and even announced a ban on the use of plastic bags, which is quite appreciable.”

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2019