By News DeskKARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan unveiled on Saturday a mega development package worth Rs 162 billion to transform Karachi by improving its transport, water and sewerage infrastructure.Chairing a meeting of the Karachi Transformation Committee here, the Prime Minister said the package comprised 18 projects — ten of those would be related to public transport and seven for water and sewerage.Khan said though the development of Karachi was supposed to be the provincial government’s responsibility, they did nothing for the metropolis. He said the federal government faced fiscal deficit of Rs 600 billion after allocating Rs 2 trillion for debt servicing, Rs 2.5 trillion for provinces’ share and Rs 1,700 billion for defence. He said the Sindh government received its full due share under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award but they showed lack of concern towards the city’s development.He said the development package was not just to appease the people rather it manifested the federal government’s belief that Pakistan could never progress without developing Karachi. He said during the previous years, Karachi had faced infrastructural deterioration that had compelled the investors to divert their investment to other markets.The Prime Minister strongly called for a massive awareness drive for water conservation and cited the models of Australia and England which made great efforts to conserve the natural resource despite receiving sufficient rains.He said the K-4 water supply project for Karachi was a complicated solution and the government could make considerable quantity of water available through conservation. He said the development projects, under the package, would be executed through public-private partnership and BOT basis. The Prime Minister emphasised the need for a master plan of Karachi to discourage mushroom growth. He also called for interim decisions till the finalisation of the master plan.He said there was a need to curtail the spreading construction in Karachi city which gave a look of a concrete slab from aerial view.Khan said the massive construction activities were eating up the green areas besides making it difficult for the government to provide amenities and maintain law and order. He said once the decision was made to stop city’s urban growth, the focus would automatically be shifted toward development of slums within the city.He said keeping in view the shrinking green areas, the government had decided to encourage vertical construction all around except inlanding and take-off zones of the airport.The Prime Minister said the federal government had already announced the launch of Insaf Sehat Card scheme in Tharparkar and it would also provide Rs 1 billion for RO plants besides setting up two mobile hospitals and providing four ambulances for the area. The federal government would also establish a university in Hyderabad, he added. Khan said he would keep in constant contact with Sindh Governor Imran Ismail to ensure proper implementation of the said projects.During his visit to Karachi, Prime Minister Khan also inaugurated city’s renovated park — Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim — and a tree plantation drive. Speaking on the occasion, he called for massive forestation across the country to leave behind a greener Pakistan for future generations.Khan said forest land had been illegally occupied in both Punjab and Sindh by land mafia where huge deforestation had also taken place. He advised every Pakistani to take part in the tree plantation drive as timely measures for environmental protection.Later, Prime Minister Khan left for the interior of Sindh where he addressed a public gathering in Ghotki district. The Prime Minister was accompanied by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Planning Minister Khusro Bakhtiar and Sindh Governor Imran Ismail.In his speech there, the Prime Minister reiterated his government’s resolve to not let the leadership of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) off the hook “unless they pay back the public’s looted money”. “I challenge you today. Do whatever you want to do, get united or anything else. We will not leave you. This nation will not pardon you. You have only one way out — pay back [the] public’s money, only then will we leave you,” the Prime Minister said.Referring to the train march by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Khan said the PTI staged a sit-in to demand a fair election, “not to conceal its corruption”. He said the PPP had to offer Rs2,000 per head to the people to join their train march “because it was not meant for the people’s benefit but to hide their own corruption”.“In the past, both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Ali Zardari labelled each other corrupt, but now they are uniting against the government,” he added.
03-31-2019, 11:51 PM
PM announces Rs 162bn Karachi uplift package
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