KARACHI: Mayor of Karachi Wasim Akhtar has claimed that only Rs10 billion has been released for the development of the city over the past four years by the provincial government.

Addressing the members of the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) on Wednesday, he clarified that recently Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had announced Rs2bn for the KMC but it wasn’t a new allocation. The government has only cleared due funds allocated for 2018-19 budget of the city, he added.

He said it had repeatedly been reported in the media that over the past three to four years, the provincial government had released Rs60bn to KMC, which was not correct. “Only Rs10bn is for development and the rest of the funds are for the expenditure for salaries and pensions of employees,” he added.

According to a KATI press release, the mayor said that not a single mega project was listed for Karachi in Public Sector Development Programme, which was a matter of great concern for Karachiites.

He said that until Article 140-A of the Constitution was implemented, administrative issues couldn’t be settled in the city.

He also criticised the federal government on its ‘indifferent’ attitude towards issues of Karachi.

He asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to come to the city and manage the state of affairs personally if he wanted to see prosperity in Pakistan.

He claimed that despite the lack of resources, only the KMC was managing administration of the city.

He said that four month salaries of KMDC doctors and risk allowance were overdue because of unavailability of funds.

The KMC is managing 14 hospitals with the help of private sector and philanthropists.

He asked the federal government to release allocated funds for the rehabilitation of fire department of Karachi.

He further mentioned that 60 per cent of the city was owned by the federal government and 30pc comes under the Sindh government jurisdiction. “Only [a] mere part of the city is left with the KMC.”

He asked the business community to come forward to claim the due share of Karachi and raise their voice on every available forum.

President of KATI Sheikh Umer Rehan slammed Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) for its “bad” performance.

In just two months, 80 complaints pertaining to water supply and sewerage had been forwarded to the MD of KWSB from Korangi Industrial Area, but he didn’t bother to respond to them, he said.

He further said that privatisation was the only solution for the problems plaguing the KWSB or bringing some competent person from business community to manage this civic agency.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2019