Observer Report
26 out of 52 state-of-the-art firefighting fire tenders provided by a Chinese company were handed over to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) in a ceremony held at Governor House on Sunday.
Speaking at the said ceremony, Governor Sindh Imran Ismail and Federal Ministers Asad Umar and Ali Zaidi sharply criticised the Sindh government for not empowering civic bodies.
Mr Imran Ismail said that all over the world the mayor is called the father of the city and in our country he is “pitied, neither having any power nor money”.
He said that Solid Waste Management Board has “failed miserably” to collect garbage in Karachi.
Meanwhile, addressing the gathering, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said that the provincial government has “not given back the management of civic bodies as it should”.
He said that the federation is working beyond its responsibility to give Karachi its due rights.
Umar said that the prime minister has insisted that the promises made to the people of Karachi be fulfilled as soon as possible.
He said that in between July and August, the Green Line bus will begin operations and a prototype bus for the purpose will soon be ready.
The federal minister also said that the Orangi and Gujjar Nullah areas will see work completed soon and a consultant is working to ready a freight corridor from Karachi Port.
He said that work is underway to implement the Karachi Transformation Plan. “The Centre has stepped forward and is trying to address Karachi’s legitimate complaints and grievances,” Umar said, adding that Governor Ismail and Prime Minister Imran Khan had themselves taken personal interest in these operations.
“He (prime minister) calls meetings, demands timelines and pressures all of us that we live up to the expectations of the people of Karachi for development projects.”
The federal minister also gave updates on the progress of projects associated with the Karachi Transformation Plan, saying that a meeting had been called for a revised schedule of the Greater Karachi Water Supply Scheme (K-IV project) since the timeline given for October 2023 was not accepted.
He added that a consultant had been appointed for the Karachi Circular Railway and there was similar swiftness in removing encroachments from stormwater drains as well.
Ali Zaidi, for his part, said that the lack of fire tenders in a city like Karachi is a matter of grave concern. “Every city has the basic facilities of fire tenders,” he said.
“In the past, there were huge fires in Karachi which caused great damage,” he noted.
