KARACHI: Minister for Maritime and Foreign Affairs Abdullah Hussain Haroon has said that the Karachi port is being strangulated by land mafia, while previous provincial governments did not cooperate in checking the growing menace of encroachment and illegal occupation of port land.

The minister addressing newsmen at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) on Friday said that the trend had resulted in illegal occupation of over one-third of port area by land mafia who also demand all services, including water and power free of cost.

The objective of the vested interest and land mafia was to strangulate to death the Karachi port and use the land for real estate business. Unfortunately, all this happened as previous provincial governments did not help the port authorities in retaining the land which belonged to the port, he said.

However, the minister said that the time had come to correct the situation and the purpose of his visit to Port Qasim and Karachi Port was to have first-hand information about the issues the two ports were facing and its future plans.

“I will be taking up the issues, as well as future plans of both the ports in Islamabad, and hopefully get necessary approvals in order to provide relief to both the ports before the tenure of the caretaker government ends,” the minister added.

Nevertheless, Hussain Haroon said that the future of both the ports was bright and during the visit to Port Qasim today he was informed that the US companies were investing in industrial zone of the port.

The notion that the US would stop investment because of the deeper involvement of Beijing in the shape of Pakistan China Economic Corridor had been proved wrong.

In fact, the Exxon was investing in Port Qasim while a refit project at Kamra was also being taken up by the US.

The minister said that presently Karachi Port was circled by Kachi Abadis which had made it difficult for operations to be carried out. Moreover, entry and exit points of port had also been clogged he said adding that the government would take necessary measures to keep port active.

Consequently, the KPT would take up new projects to ensure the entry and exit points were connected with the highways to facilitate the port traffic moving out directly instead of moving into city areas, the minister said.

He disclosed that the KPT had been asked to set up a desalination plant near the Oyster Rocks which would provide daily 150 million gallons of water and also produce 3000MW energy.

Presently, he said the entire District South and Karachi Port were faced with acute water shortage and many a time, the port failed in providing water to ships. However, after the operation of co-gen project (desalination plant) power and water crisis would be resolved to a great extent, he added.

Abdullah Hussain Haroon lauded the KPT chairman for negotiating a deal with the Karachi Dock Labour Board (KDLB) regarding the South Asia Pakistan Terminal (SAPT) which, he hoped would not let dock labour go on a strike or disrupt operations.

He regretted that around 60 to 70 per cent land of Karachi was illegally occupied or encroached upon while those residing there wanted free water and power. The K-Electric, he said, could control the losses if political connections over there were removed.

In connection to over population in Karachi, he advised a check on exodus of people from other parts, particularly when apprehensions were ripened that the southern Sindh would not get water from Indus by 2030-35 and it would face a severe water shortage or no water at all. —PIR

Published in Dawn, July 14th, 2018