KARACHI: “With seven district municipal corporations (DMC) and 17 agencies working in Karachi, citizens are confused regarding domains of different corporations and agencies. And at these corporations and agencies, rather than focusing on solutions, there is a blame game going between them,” said Karachi Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab.

Barrister Wahab, who is also chief minister’s law adviser and provincial government’s spokesperson, said this during a conversation with Dr S. Akbar Zaidi, executive director of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), on the topic of ‘Karachi: the way forward’ here on Friday.

“Take the example of one road, Sharea Faisal. Do you know that the road from Hotel Metropole to FTC is not the area of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation [KMC]...it’s the area of Karachi Cantonment Board. From the FTC to Karsaz Road is the area of KMC. From Karsaz Road to Drigh Road is the area of Cantonment Board Faisal. From Star Gate to Airport is Malir. So this 12- to 13-kilometres road comes under four to five different organisations,” he said.

“Now when people don’t see the streetlights switched on anywhere on this road or if you see garbage accumulating somewhere, you will blame the KMC or the Sindh government,” he added. “People focus on negativity because it sells.”

‘Aga Khan, Liaquat National Hospitals and National Stadium pay no rent to KMC for land’

“But if they look at the positives of the last 20 months, they will see how the Sindh government has been making roads, creating urban spaces such as the People’s Square that has a basement parking to take the car parking load off the Sindh Secretariat, S.M. Law College, the Arts Council, etc, and the beachfront development projects.”

To this, Dr Zaidi said that before recreational projects came the basic necessities such as piped water supply to homes in Karachi. “I need water, I need electricity,” he reminded.

To this Barrister Wahab pointed out that the city did not even know its correct population count.

Desalination plant at Ibrahim Hyderi soon

“There is a need for 1,200 MGD [million gallons per day] of water for Karachi, but we are getting around 550 MGD. Then, if the government starts to realign its distribution in a rational way then politics come in the way. One party or the other will say the PPP government is deliberately stopping the supply of water to its constituency,” he said while speaking of certain options such as laying a new Hub canal to stop water leakages there or using seawater to take care of the shortage.

“But desalination is expensive. The water board currently charges 32 paisa per gallon from consumers but desalination will increase this to 90 paisa. So the water board is afraid of being questioned by courts and NAB. Still we are planning to have a desalination plant at Ibrahim Hyderi soon,” he said.

The next question put to Barrister Wahab by Dr Zaidi was about the PPP government not getting many votes or seats from Karachi so its government was based on the support it got from the rest of Sindh. Therefore, was it not true that the PPP government was imposing itself on Karachi? He asked.

Responding to this, Barrister Wahab claimed that the people of Karachi were so fed up that they would opt for anyone would work for them. “The projects we are working on for Karachi will make you rethink about the Sindh government,” he said.

‘City cannot be run on Rs160m KMC revenue’

Coming to the KMC, he said that when he took over as its administrator, he started looking at its assets.

“The total municipal tax collected in one year is Rs210 million. But its target is a billion rupees with 21 per cent collection. Out of that Rs210m, they give Rs45m to their collection agent, making the leftover tax to be Rs160m. Now can you run a city on that for a year? No, you cannot,” he said.

“The KMC has 62 commercial markets with 9,100 shops. The total rent in one year coming from there is less than Rs100m. The KMC has 245 huts at the beach, which could be a goldmine for any city. The amount of rent being collected from each hut was Rs16,000 per year. The KMC has 11 functional petrol pumps in different parts of Karachi, which it has outsourced to others. KMC gets Rs70,000 to Rs80,000 at month from each petrol pump. There are acres of land that belong to KMC. The Aga Khan Hospital is built on KMC land, the Liaquat National Hospital is on KMC land. The National Stadium is built on KMC land but there is no collection of rent from there. So this institution was deliberately stifled. And people are made to think that the KMC has no authority,” he said.

“Then what did I do? I said the rate of petrol pumps will increase. They went to court for a stay order. I said the rent for the huts will increase, they also went to court for a stay order. You tie my hands and feet and push me into the ocean, How do I float?” He questioned.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2021