KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said the federal government has only tried to appease Karachi by offering a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project and has yet to honour its promise of allocating Rs100 billion for the city despite its 70 per cent contribution to the country’s economy.

However, he assured builders that Karachi’s infrastructure would be “significantly improved very soon”.

Addressing members of the Association of Builders and Developers (Abad) at Abad House on Saturday, Mr Shah said that if the association submitted a draft for low-cost housing schemes, the Sindh government would “fully cooperate”.

The 27th Constitutional Amendment, he claimed, had been drafted “for the benefit of Karachi’s residents”.

Abad says investors shifting to Dubai, Lahore amid persistent delays

Creating new provinces, he added, was “extremely difficult”. Sindh was already struggling to meet the expenses of its existing provincial machinery and, in such circumstances, it was not possible to form new assemblies, new courts or new infrastructure, he said.

According to an Abad press release, the minister said Sindh’s local government system was better than those of other provinces and that the government was fully aware of the issues facing the construction sector.

“Approvals that are pending will be issued immediately. We want the public to receive affordable housing schemes on time,” he said.

He admitted that several departments, including the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), required significant improvement and said officers who had been “unjustly harassing” builders had been removed from their positions. “Illegal construction must be stopped, but legitimate work should not be hindered,” he added.

“We do not want builders to leave the country,” he said, assuring developers that the government, in collaboration with the private sector, would take measures to create jobs, enhance housing availability and improve the construction economy.

Abad Chairman Muhammad Hassan Bakshi told the gathering that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) had been signed between the Saudi government and Abad under which Saudi Arabia would invest $500 million in Karachi’s construction sector. He urged that land records and project approvals be digitised.

He said institutional hurdles in Karachi had reached “an extreme level”, pushing the construction industry into crisis. Delays had become routine, from the transfer of commercial plots to the resolution of various legal issues, he added.

“Even after issuance of notifications by municipal bodies, implementation does not take place, and the industry cannot function this way,” he said.

“Abad members are now reluctant to invest in Karachi, and many have shifted their investments to Dubai and Lahore,” Mr Bakshi said.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2025