IT is difficult to disagree with Planning Minister Asad Umar’s criticism of the Sindh government’s neglect of Karachi, particularly the emaciated state of the megalopolis’s local bodies system. Speaking in the Sindh capital on Sunday, Mr Umar said Karachi “has not been given its rights”, adding that despite the port city’s hefty contribution to the national exchequer, its infrastructure, such as the firefighting system, was in tatters. Of course, Karachi’s destruction has been several years in the making, and the slow decline has only accelerated during the PPP’s over decade-long rule in Sindh. It should be noted that the MQM, which at one time ruled urban Sindh with an iron fist, also did little to permanently address the problems of the metropolis while the PTI, which won the most National Assembly seats from the city during the last general elections, has also done little for Karachi, other than issue statements. The fact is that the political class as a whole has been guilty of neglecting Karachi while using the megacity to grab votes and sit comfortably in the national and provincial assemblies, even as the city’s infrastructure crumbles.

When the MQM was in control, it stuffed loyalists in the water board and other local government bodies, with the result that today these institutions are close to collapse. Moreover, the dark art of ‘china cutting’ — as grabbing amenity plots and divvying them up for huge profits is colloquially known — was mastered under the Muttahida’s watch. Of course, neglect of the city under PPP rule has hit a new nadir, with the provincial government hogging nearly all municipal powers that should rightfully belong to the KMC and the elected mayor. But it is not just Karachi; Hyderabad, Larkana and Sukkur too are facing similar crises where urban decay is concerned, though the PPP insists it has worked wonders in Sindh. The fact is that Karachi — and the rest of urban Sindh — cannot prosper until elected LG systems are put in place, answerable to voters at the local level. Launching new projects such as expressways and bridges in Karachi and labelling this progress, as the PPP is prone to doing, will not work unless the city has a workable solid waste disposal system along with an undisrupted water supply and a working sewage disposal system, as well as functioning public transport. Instead of playing politics, all parties must work on new legislation that can empower Sindh’s local bodies.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2021