KARACHI, Sept 10: Amid confusion over a quorum in the City Council on Monday, the house adopted a resolution about the change of land use in the Clifton beach area. The resolution gives approval to commercial use through joint venture for construction of a five-star hotel on a piece of land measuring 2.5 acres near Clifton beach in Block 2, Scheme 5.

When the resolution was put to the vote by the convener, some opposition members pointed out to the chair that the house could not conduct its business because the required number of members were not present.

When Convener Nasreen Jalil asked for a count, she was told that there were 140 members, but the opposition contested this figure and staged a walkout.

In the absence of the opposition, the house passed the resolution unanimously which was termed by the opposition members illegal.

At the outset of the proceedings, Leader of the Opposition in the City Council Saeed Ghani drew the attention of the convener to his previous resolution about the demolition of a minority graveyard and a delay in release of the union councils’ funds.

Upon this, treasury leader Masood Mehmood argued that there was no justification for passing any resolution on the issue as the city nazim had already issued directives to provide basic facilities to the graveyard, adding that a boundary wall of the graveyard was also being built.

Abdul Razak of Al-Khidmat Group said the traffic problem in the city was yet to be solved despite the fact that Ramazan was approaching and no solution was in sight.

When the convener asked the UC nazim whether he was playing any role in this regard, he said the UC nazims were not given traffic control powers.

He was joined by Awam Dost member Dilawar Khan, who complained that except signing birth and death certificate forms, the UC nazims had no powers. Mr Khan said if the UC nazims had been delegated powers, they would have solved a lot of people’s problems.

On a point of order, Awam Dost member Juman Darwan claimed that the 2020 master plan of Karachi had completely ignored the rural areas of the city, adding that the proposed plan did not cover the coastal areas of Keamari, Gadap and Bin Qasim towns. He said it was total injustice to the people of these old localities, adding that the house should take the issue of 3,000 old villages seriously.

He said the issue should not only be discussed at the UC level, but it should also be addressed at the town, district and provincial levels.