Given the utter urban chaos that is Karachi, it sounds like a dream: green open spaces and parks, roads free of encroachments and easy parking, neat sidewalks, a coherent traffic management system, improved civic administration services, new water and sewerage lines, the restoration of heritage buildings and much more.

These are just a few of the facets of the World Bank-funded Karachi Neighbourhood Improvement Project that the Sindh government has chalked out in order to transform the metropolis into a ‘beautiful’ city. The Rs10bn project, of which the provincial government’s share is Rs12m, is comprised of multiple components that are to be covered over the next decade.

All this good news was made public by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday, as he presided over a meeting at CM House while directing the city commissioner to start removing encroachments from the downtown Saddar area so that work could start within a month.

“This is the most important project […]”, he is reported as having said, “[…] I would request each and every Karachiite to support it and own it”.

This is a telling statement indeed. Truth be told, this city’s sad reality is that while millions walk its streets, work its mechanisms and call it home, no one — least of all the provincial government — really feels a sense of ownership in it or cares much for its fate in terms of civic infrastructure and amenities.

While elsewhere in the country many examples are available where citizens and provincial governments have collaborated to improve conditions, Sialkot airport being a case in point, Karachi must perennially seek external help — because, we must assume, no one body or group has enough of a stake to be anything other than largely ineffectual.

Even for a most basic requirement such as cleaning up the garbage that is piled up on the streets, city authorities have brought in Chinese support. Now, with this World Bank loan, the city managers have only further demonstrated their deficiencies.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2017