KARACHI: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Sindh Assembly on Thursday asked the Sindh government to make legislation and form a board of governors to prepare a master plan of Karachi.

PAC chairman Nisar Khuhro, who presided over the meeting, said the master plan department of the city was notified, but there was no new such plan for the metropolis.

The master plan department was established under the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) in 1968 and after promulgation of the Lyari Development Authority and Malir Development Authority in 1993, the KDA’s governing body had decided to form a board of stakeholders for the department for effective and integrated planning of the entire city.

Subsequently, the then government had tasked the KDA to prepare a law for an autonomous master plan department and in 2001, after promulgation of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, the department was renamed as the Master Plan Group of Offices (MPGO) and the Design Bureau and Directorate of Planning and Urban Design of the KDA were merged into it, it added.

Last such plan for the city was made in 2007, Public Accounts Committee told

In 2023, the master plan department was placed under the administrative and financial control of the director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority and the Sindh Master Plan Authority (SMPA) was established through a notification issued on Feb 18, 2020 as a separate authority. The Karachi Strategic Development Plan (KSDP) 2020 was notified in Feb 2020.

The provincial government had tasked the KDA to prepare a new master plan — Greater Karachi Regional Plan 2047.

The director general audit told the PAC meeting that the master plan authority was illegal.

The audit paragraphs of the Karachi Master Plan Authority for the year 2019 and 2020 were reviewed in the meeting.

PAC Member Qasim Siraj Soomro, along with Local Government Additional Chief Secretary Khalid Haider Shah, Master Plan Authority director, Sindh Audit DG and other relevant officers, participated in the meeting.

The meeting was told that the Master Plan Authority had been established in 2019 to prepare the master plan for the mega city. However, despite the passage of five years, neither legislation was made for the Master Plan Authority nor the board of governors for the authority.

The Sindh Audit DG said that without any act and without any board of governors, the Master Plan Authority was an illegal institution.

The additional chief secretary told the PAC that until the Master Plan Authority act was made, the institution was working under Sindh Building Control Authority.

The meeting was informed that 50 employees from lower grade to grade-19 were working in the Master Plan Authority which issued the outline under the master plan keeping in mind the infrastructure of the city and the buildings.

The PAC was also told that last master plan for the city was made in 2007.—

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2024