Govt asked to make Karachi’s master plan with focus on high-rises, transport

Published September 29, 2019
A moot of experts has discussed the issues of Karachi and called for preparing a master plan for the metropolis with special focus on infrastructure and public transport. — Photo by Ali Raza Khatri/File
A moot of experts has discussed the issues of Karachi and called for preparing a master plan for the metropolis with special focus on infrastructure and public transport. — Photo by Ali Raza Khatri/File

KARACHI: A moot of experts has discussed the issues of Karachi and called for preparing a master plan for the metropolis with special focus on infrastructure and public transport.

A seminar titled ‘A clean Karachi but how’ was organised by the Pakistan Medical Association and Karachi Citizens Forum (KCF) at the PMA House on Friday evening.

PMA secretary general Dr S.M. Qaisar Sajjad informed the participants that the PMA and KCF had six meetings after rains in Karachi and discussed in detail the issues of garbage and sewage.

Experts say alarming rise in skin infections, conjunctivitis, etc, is because of unhygienic city conditions

“Many people were claiming to clean Karachi within a few months, weeks and in 48 hours but nothing happened,” he said, adding: “There is an increase in number of cases of waterborne diseases, mosquito- and fly-borne diseases, skin infections, conjunctivitis and others just because of filthy situation and unhygienic conditions in Karachi.”

“Today, on this forum we will decide that who will clean Karachi, how will it be cleaned on a regular basis,” he said, asking the panellists to talk about the future strategy about cleaning Karachi and avoid describing previous stories.

Pakistan Women Foundation for Peace chairperson Nargis Rehman said it was announced in 2011 that Karachi was not a city worth living in. “Now it ranks fourth in the world’s most unliveable cities. We have been facing loss of life and property for the last so many decades. We have discussed at large, Karachi’s civic issues during our previous six meetings. It is regrettable that Karachi has no plan, whereas we need to have a new master plan.”

She called for implementation of laws, accountability, monitoring and privatisation of sanitation of Karachi.

Structured govt, governance needed for solving civic issues

Former Sindh governor Kamal Azfar said that there were three governments working in the city.

“There are six cantonment boards of the federal government and three development authorities of the Sindh government, whereas only one-third of Karachi comes under the jurisdiction of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation,” he said, adding: “The basic problem of Karachi is overlap of power in different parts of the city. The entire Karachi remained under the Karachi Improvement Trust Act 1950 (KIT Act) from 1950 to 1957 until the KIT Act was repealed and replaced by the Karachi Development Order 1957. You cannot solve the civic issues of Karachi until and unless there exists a structured government and governance in the city.”

Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro of the PMA-Karachi talked about the burden of diseases in the city.

“Thousands of patients are suffering from pneumonia, typhoid, dengue and diarrhoea. Patients suffering from diarrhoea visit tertiary-care hospitals because our primary and secondary healthcare facilities are not functioning. We need to completely overhaul the primary and secondary healthcare system,” he said. “We have laws but unfortunately there is no implementation. We need to strengthen our primary healthcare to decrease burden of tertiary care, then it’s the need of the hour to spend more on prevention rather than cure.”

Dr Qazi Mohammad Wasiq stressed upon the need to work on community hygiene, asking to include it in syllabus at school and college level. He said there should be a proper garbage collection system in each residential building of Karachi.

Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said that the city could not be cleaned until disposal of three million tonnes of garbage. “Only then start cleaning the city on a daily basis. This is not the responsibility of any single [entity] but responsibility of all of us to keep our city clean.”

He claimed that he could clean Karachi on a daily basis if the responsibility of lifting garbage was given to him.

He said that the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) had a fixed budget but they were not discharging their responsibilities. The KMC had its own budget for lifting garbage but the work was never done properly, he added.

PTI MNA Aftab Hussain Siddiqui said the SSWMB should fulfil its responsibilities and increase its capacity. The local government should be strengthened and given powers to overcome the civic issues of Karachi, he added.

Resolutions

Participants of the seminar passed a resolution demanding an effective, sustainable and clean Karachi action programme to enforce rule of law, visible implementation of law, accountability and transparency.

Through another resolution, they asked for a master plan for Karachi that should give priority to infrastructure, high-rises and transport.

They called for prioritising the sanitation problem and water needs of Karachi and garbage disposal by redefining duties and responsibilities of the city’s civic delivery authorities and ensuring coordination between them.

A joint monitoring team (JMT) should be established, headed by a senior member of the superior judiciary, to oversee the clean Karachi programme.

“We stress upon institutionalised programmes for sustained city cleanness involving government bodies and all stakeholders like industrialist, ulema, media, educational institutions, traders and building management committees.

In the end, the audience regretted the absence of Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar and Chief Minister’s Adviser Murtaza Wahab.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2019

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