KARACHI, Oct 4: The Lyari Town municipal administration demanding revival of natural boundaries of the locality has decided to take up the issue of the town’s delimitation with the National Reconstruction Bureau and other relevant authorities, it has been learnt.

Although the issue was raised by two former nazims of the town, it went dormant because of a three-year legal bar on making readjustments in the existing boundaries. Such readjustments could only be made with the consent of the towns and union councils concerned and by inviting public objections through newspapers.

The time-barred legal condition would cease to apply from this month, Lyari Town officials said, adding that Nazim Mehmud Hashim had started holding a series of meetings with the officials of Saddar Town and union councils concerned, who reportedly have no reservations on giving back some commercial areas to Lyari Town.

In their letters addressed to the NRB and other relevant authorities, former town nazims, Abdul Khalique Juma and Malik Fayyaz, had described the existing territorial limits of the town as unjustified. They argued that the unnatural and illegal merger of Lyari’s old areas in Saddar Town had greatly weakened the latter’s financial position and as such Lyari Town was unable to execute any development scheme.

No physical survey and spot study was carried out while preparing the delimitation plan in 2002, the former nazims alleged, adding that every effort to generate funds by levying additional taxes or charges had proved futile.

They said the delimitation plan excluded almost all commercial areas, including Lea Market, sanitary and timber markets, from the town limits thus depriving it of huge revenue generated from these localities. Besides, some major localities (like old Kumarwara) were cut off from the natural and historic boundaries of Lyari, creating hardships for residents who were compelled to travel all the way to Saddar town offices to get their grievances addressed.