KARACHI: Mayor Wasim Akhtar said on Friday that Karachi, with 50 per cent of its population living in slums, was facing series of civic issues and the World Bank’s (WB) cooperation in resolving them was a good omen.

“The city’s critical problems should be given priority which would help solve the basic issues negatively affecting Karachi,” said Mayor Akhtar while chairing a meeting with the WB representatives.

The officials were visiting Karachi during which they held meetings with the authorities in the Sindh government and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to work out a comprehensive plan to initiate development projects of importance in the city.

The mayor said the sprawling city was suffering mainly because of poor water supply and drainage system with improper sanitation conditions and broken roads.

He added that those problems were posing serious hurdles in the way of realistic development of the city.

Mayor Akhtar urged the delegation to accord top priority to rehabilitation and construction of roads and bridges, and provision of machinery and equipment for cleaning of storm drains and emergency works.

He ordered the KMC officers to provide all possible help and support to the World Bank team in their study of the city projects.

He said the elected leadership of the metropolis was making all possible efforts to solve its problems and for that matter many plans were under consideration.

A KMC spokesperson quoted the World Bank representatives as saying that the world body was making $60 million to $80m investment in Karachi and in this connection under the Karachi integrated urban management project 2018, they were working on the city’s drainage basin, locations and capacity of the city’s main rivers, and depth and dredging requirements with the help of computerised software and through digital elevation model.

Officials said the study focused on the protection from floods and to prepare a workable plan in this connection.

Mayor Akhtar assured all possible cooperation in the World Bank’s projects and said it was top priority of his administration to provide better facilities to citizens of Karachi.

Fyzee Rahamin gallery

The city mayor said Fyzee Rahamin Art Gallery was an important cultural heritage of the city and its land was gifted by renowned education and culture personality Begum Atiya Fyzee to the KMC for the citizens of Karachi.

He dispelled the impression that the land or building of the art gallery was being handed over to some organisation or individuals.

“As the sole trusty of this land, the KMC, under the trust deed, will continue to maintain and run this cultural centre and organise cultural and literary activities here,” said the mayor while speaking at a briefing given to him on the Fyzee Rahamin Art Gallery project.

Mayor Akhtar asked the officers that the land and building of the art gallery would only be utilised in accordance with the trust deed signed in 1952.

He said a huge modern auditorium named Aiwan-i-Riffat adjacent to the gallery was under construction and would soon be completed.

Earlier, the meeting was briefed that Begum Atiya Fyzee and her husband, Samuel Fyzee Rahamin, were invited by Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah to shift to Karachi from Bombay (Mumbai) after independence.

The celebrated couple was allotted a piece of land in Burnes Garden where in 1952 they constructed a building known as Aiwan-i-Riffat and decorated it with all their valuable collections and treasures of art and culture. Later, they gifted the place to the citizens of Karachi under a trust deed.

The KMC accepted the trusteeship vide its council’s resolution No 138/52 dated May 29, 1952, according to which the corporation had to maintain the building in proper repairs and preserve the exhibits and permit the public at large to visit the museum and picture gallery and ensure the use of this building for only the purpose described in the trust deed.

Mayor opens road in Orangi

City Mayor Wasim Akhtar on Thursday claimed the city was facing, what he described as, a ‘stepmotherly’ treatment from Islamabad as the metropolis which provided billions of rupees in revenue to the Centre was not getting even ‘peanuts’ to meet its requirements for development.

“It is the duty of the elected authorities to solve problems of their citizens. All efforts would be taken to solve the issue pertaining to scarcity of water in Orangi,” said the mayor while speaking to reporters after inaugurating a newly-constructed road in union council 22 of Faqir Colony, Muslimabad.

He also visited various parts of the sprawling Orangi neighbourhood.

He said citizens had trusted and elected their local representatives in hope to get rid of everyday problems. He added that provision of potable water, better sewerage system, sanitation and road infrastructure formed basic rights of the people and it was their duty to solve those issues.

The elected representatives and notables of the area and senior officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation accompanied the mayor.

Mayor Akhtar said Karachi was the backbone of the national economy and the city was running the whole country.

“Yet,” he added, “Karachi has been kept deprived of basic facilities and the governments must think on it before patience of citizens reach the saturation point.”

He expressed the hope that the newly-constructed road would provide comfort to the people in their daily life.

He said solving citizens’ problems was the top priority of the elected representatives.

He added the lifting of garbage was also a major issue and it was time “we start thinking about this because poor sanitation and leakage from sewerage mains cause various diseases in the city”.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2018