KARACHI, Jan 26: Nazim Karachi Naimatullah Khan said on Monday that encroachment on city government land would be considered a police cognizable act and Section 144 CrPC had been imposed.
"No one will now be allowed to encroach the government land and anyone making such an attempt will be liable to be prosecuted under Section 144", he said while speaking as chief guest at the foundation-stone laying ceremony of the Quaidabad flyover.
Chairman, Pakistan Steel, Lt-Gen (Retd) Abdul Qayyum, DCO Karachi Mir Hussain Ali, EDO Works and Services Shoaib Siddiqui, Town Nazim Bin Qasim Ashiq Jamote and others also spoke.
The Nazim said encroachments in the past involved the problem of employment of people. He said the removal of encroachments would be carried out now in such a way that least number of people are affected.
Asking the people to sacrifice for development of the city, he made it clear that no alternative land would be provided to the affectees because the city government did not provide alternative plots to the affectees of different projects except the Lyari Expressway Project.
Naimatullah said the people used to think that the Karachi package was only a "paper plan" as a number of development packages were approved in the past, but could not be implemented and similarly this would be the fate of the existing package.
There was a happy news for the people of Karachi that the city government, the KPT, Port Qasim, Steel Mill and Export Promotion Bureau have started implementation of the package and work thereon was going on at a fast speed.
Naimatulah said that after the creation of the city government, equal treatment was being meted out to all the towns and construction of this flyover will benefit the people of Bin Qasim, Gadap and Landhi.
He announced that a 100-bed hospital and a college would be set up at the Bin Qasim Town in the next year's budget. He said that while designing the flyover, care has been taken that minimum possible people are displaced.
The Nazim said that work on Rs 29 billion Tameer-i-Karachi programme, launched on the personal interest of President Pervez Musharraf for the welfare of Karachiites and provision of facilities to them was under implementation at a fast pace and it would be completed soon.
Naimatullah Khan paid glowing tributes to late chairman Pakistan Steel Col (Retd) Mohammed Afzal for his sincere cooperation towards the implementation of Tameer-i-Karachi programme and said that besides the Quaidabad flyover, the cooperation of Pakistan Steel for the second project of link road was appreciative.
The city Nazim hoped that as a result of this cooperation, a lasting relationship between the city government and Pakistan Steel would be established on a permanent basis.
Naimatullah Khan also paid tributes to chairman Pakistan Steel for the services he rendered as the head of Pakistan Ordnance Factory. He also spoke about other mega projects approved by the President for Karachi apart from the Karachi package and expressed satisfaction over the pace of implementation.
The city Nazim assured that he would give a sympathetic consideration to the problems of other urban and rural areas of Karachi besides the adjoining areas of Quaidabad and said that side by side the city government, it is also the duty of the people to cooperate instead of create hindrance.
Later addressing the ceremony, Chairman Pakistan Steel, Lt Gen (Retd) Abdul Qayyum described President Pervez Musharraf as an architect of new economic and foreign policies.
On the occasion, he paid rich tributes to the services rendered by late Chairman PS, Lt Col (Retd) Mohammed Afzal and said the PS management would continue its cooperation towards development schemes.
Declaring Karachi as an economic capital, Gen Qayyum stressed the need for resolving the city's problems with a sense of commitment. The 600 meters long flyover would be constructed at a cost of Rs 200 million. It would be a steel structure having a 400 meter long under-pass also with two Karachi-Thatta tracks, two Karachi-Landhi tracks.
DCO Mir Hussain Ali said that he was happy to note that work on the package had started as he was with the city Nazim since the day the package was approved and added that the people of the city would benefit from it.
EDO works and services Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, giving the details of project, said that special emphasis was laid on the design so that minimum number of people are affected by it.
He announced that the flyover, having steel structure, would be completed in the stipulated time. Earlier, Nazim Bin Qasim Town Ashiq Jamote demanded setting up of a 100-bed hospital and a degree college in the area for which, he said, land was available. Construction of flyover would cost Rs200 million which would be 600 metres long, with two lanes on both sides.
The steel-made flyover would also have a 400 metre long underpass which would have two lanes each for Karachi to Thatta, downtown Karachi to Landhi and Landhi to Thatta. Later, both Naimatullah Khan and Lt-Gen Abdul Qayyum jointly unveiled the plaque of the foundation-stone.-APP/PPI