KARACHI, April 2: The City District Government Karachi has, for what it described as the first time in the country's history, invited proposals from people in the budget preparation so that development schemes are chalked out in the light of these suggestions.

This was stated by Karachi Nazim Naimatullah Khan while speaking on the topic of "Karachi in 2010", at a pre-budget seminar, held in the NIPA auditorium on Friday.

He said proposals from citizens greatly helped solve the problems as well as in planning.

Naimatullah Khan said that for solving problems of the people, it was imperative for government officials to work honestly and with true spirit of service.

"The roots of corruption in our society are 56 years old, yet the city government has achieved success to great extent in its efforts to eliminate corruption and malpractices and officials and nazims are performing their responsibilities honestly".

He cited an example of Shah Faisal Flyover and said this project was completed three months ahead of schedule with a saving of Rs90 million.

The nazim said the city government could not solve the supply of water, sewerage, transport and other problems with its available resources. It warranted foreign investment and public sector cooperation besides help from the federal and provincial governments.

Mr Khan said Karachi is a megacity and the private sector too should contribute to its development, and particularly the stake-holders who enjoyed a significant position and whom Karachi had given resources.

"Unless Karachi develops, the trade and the country will not progress", he declared.

The others who spoke on the occasion included Karachi DCO Mir Hussain Ali, EDO Finance of the CDGK Iqbal Hasan Zaidi, Zulfiqar Qadri, president of PIFPA, EDO Works and Services of the CDGK Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, Director General of NIPA Badarul Islam and Chief Instructor of NIPA Abu Ahmed Akif.

EDO Finance Iqbal Hasan Zaidi said that in the last year's budget, efforts were made to address all micro and macro issues of the city. "An amount of Rs2 billion was released to UC nazims to solve people's problems at micro level".

He said it was tried that all mega projects launched at macro level to develop infrastructure of the city be completed in time while maintaining quality of work.

"Funds will be earmarked for improving different sectors in the coming budget as was done in the last budget," he said, adding that improvement due to the development activities could be felt easily.

He laid emphasis on development of human resource mechanism in the CDGK with sustainable development approach to carry out the work in a better way.

Commenting on problem confronting the CDGK in generation of revenue, he said that after the abolition of octroi tax, the CDGK was dependent on the provincial government for meeting its expenditures, which often created problems in releasing the funds.

Citing non-formation of the Provincial Finance Award (PFA), mandatory under SLGO 2001 for flow of funds from provincial government to district governments, he said an interim award had been announced by the Sindh government rather than by the PFA, causing tremendous hardships in getting funds for the development schemes in the city.

DCO Mir Hussain Ali said budget was an important tool for running the affairs of any organization and played the role of fuel in driving the vehicle of any institution in upward direction.

NIPA Chief Instructor Abu Ahmed Akif gave a presentation on 'Changing the mindset from citizens to customer - from rulers to servants", a blend of slight humorous and sharp criticism on governance of the country. He also criticized the public servant system of the country.

He advocated for introducing "Customer Satisfaction Index (CIS)" in the government departments to evaluate and assess the performance of government employees in serving the people.

"Strong political will is needed to change the system of governance at all levels in the country to rid the people of the clutches of the colonial governance mindset," he said. - APP/PPI