KARACHI: Looking for a shared vision and roadmap for sustainability, members of the Youth Parliament along with relevant experts in public policy, political and social sciences engaged with government parliamentarians and lawmakers to learn about their vision, agendas and plans for promoting growth in the province during a workshop organised by Sheri-Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE) in collaboration with the Youth Parliament here on Saturday.

They discussed climate change, urban mobility, encroachments and the local government.

MPA Shahzad Qureshi of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) asked about climate change and what policies the government was looking to implement there. He said it was sad how people have been chopping down trees in Karachi for the last 25 to 30 years.

“They have been cutting trees to make way for buildings. They have also built buildings where there was space for only one home, there has been space created to put up huge hoardings, too. Basically, there was no planning as the city was being ruined,” he pointed out.

Cleaning gutter is not lawmakers’ job

“Then when PTI made government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for the first time, we brought the policy of the billion tree tsunami. Then when we came into power and made the federal government, too, the one billion tree tsunami became the 10 billion tree tsunami. Now you see everyone planting trees on various occasions especially August 14. Schoolchildren are also planting trees and coming out for beach clean-ups,” he said.

A PTI MNA says 45pc of the city consists of katchi abadis

To another question regarding local governments, he also said that Karachi needed a strong LG system. “It is not the work of MNAs and MPAs to clean gutters. You need a consolidated local government to do it.”

To a question about development on Bundal and Buddoo islands here, MPA Saeed Ahmad Afridi of the PTI said that it was tried earlier also by some people from Dubai but had to be shelved due to intervention by locals. “But if developed, these islands will create jobs. The Sindh government, which is also opposing it now, should understand the benefits of developing the islands,” he said.

When asked about the danger to the mangrove forests on the islands due to development, he said they were not going to harm the mangroves. To this, Engineer Pervez Saquib questioned if he had even been to the islands. “There is cutting of the mangroves happening there for the last 45 years. It’s an ecological disaster,” he informed him.

To another question about encroachments, PTI MNA from Defence Aftab Siddiqui said that there is plenty of horizontal construction happening in our metropolitan cities.

“In Karachi, there is a constant inflow of people, who are mostly labour class. So we see the development of makeshift housing or katchi abadi. As a result, 45 per cent of the city is katchi abadi,” he said.

Need for Centre-Sindh cooperation

MPA Riaz Haider said that they could follow a model of Hong Kong where the government has vertical housing schemes on katchi abadi land to make flats with proper sanitation for the poor.

He also said that it was the need of the hour for the federal government and the Sindh government to join hands and work together for the betterment of the city.

To another question regarding women’s compartments and measures for their safety in new public transport such as the Green Line, it was explained that not only will they have separate areas for women and special persons, they also have CCTV cameras installed.

It was also said that the government was hoping to get the Rangers involved in the security of the Green Line Bus service.

To this MPA Mangla Sharma of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan pointed out that it was not the Rangers’ job to do that kind of work.

Rehan Hashmi of the same party said that there was a need to strengthen institutions to prevent Karachi from becoming a complete concrete jungle. He also pointed towards the water problem and need for water conservation schemes.

Tanzeel Bin Abdul Rauf of the MQM-P also said that all authorities in Karachi had to come on one page. “There is the Defence Housing Authority, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, the cantonments, etc., which are all going in opposite directions of each other. We have been saying that the mayor needs powers. Without it the union councils are also useless. There is still no proper system of running things here,” he said.

Amber Alibhai, Farhan Anwar and Hawwa Fazal of Shehri-CBE and Rizwan Jaffar, founder and chairman of Youth Parliament, also spoke.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2021