KARACHI, Jan 4: President Gen Pervez Musharraf is taking keen interest in development projects for the city, and the Rs29 billion package symbolises his confidence in the city government, city Nazim Naimatullah Khan said.
He was speaking at a reception held in his honour by the Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) on Sunday at Bagh-i-Jinnah.
It was due to persuasion by the President that all stake-holders were now coming forth to participate in city's uplift projects, he said.
The Karachi Port Trust, Pakistan International Airlines, Steel Mill, Export Promotion Bureau, Defence Housing Authority and other stake-holders had agreed to extend cooperation in different projects, including those pertaining to construction of roads, flyovers, solid waste management etc, he said.
City Nazim vowed to continue to serve the citizens by rising above party affiliation.
Complaining of opposition by some elements, he appealed to them to "not to hamper development projects of the city for the sake of petty politics," and added that instead, they should extend help in providing better facilities to the people of Karachi.
The city we inherited was a battered city, as there was no town planning and no master plan was made for the city with such a huge population, he said.
"There was no system of transport, while water and sewerage systems had become crippled; 4,500 educational institutions were in a dilapidated condition, health sector was equally damaged and with the advent of new system of City District Government, I and my team strived to address all problems of the city," the city Nazim said.
Giving the break-up of the package, he said that stake-holders would provide Rs12 billion, Sindh government, Rs6 billion, federal government, another Rs5 billion, while CDGK would put in Rs6 billion as its share in city's development.
He informed the gathering that tenders for Mass Transit Project would be finalized in the next few days, and soon a meeting would be held with multi-national companies, business groups and others for preparing another package for the city.
City Naib Nazim Tariq Hasan, speaking on the occasion, claimed that 60 per cent problems of the city had been solved and the remaining would be solved soon.
Tracing the problems faced by the city government in its initial days, he said that devolution of Karachi Municipal Corporation into 18 towns and 178 union councils was a hard task. He also thanked President Gen Musharraf for taking interest in the affairs of Karachi and said the President had always acknowledged the problems faced by the residents of Karachi.
He informed the gathering that the President had directed round- the-clock work on projects, which directly related to public, like traffic congestion and sanitation etc.
Pir Muhammed Kalia of the World Memon Froum, who presided over the reception, deplored that infrastructure in the city was inadequate for industries, adding that a lot was still to be done to make the city a metropolis in true sense.
Others who spoke on the reception included Ahmed Zamir Daftari and president of the forum,-APP