Provincial minister for works and
services, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani releases a dove as he inaugurates the Pursukoon Karachi festival. PHOTO: IRFAN ALI/EXPRESS
Emotional speeches, envisioning a peaceful Karachi, kicked off the three-day cultural festival, Pursukoon Karachi, at the Karachi Arts Council and National Academy of Performing Arts simultaneously on Friday.
“Pursukoon Karachi is a fresh breeze in this suffocating environment and I pray that it moves ahead and spreads happiness and peace,” said Sindh minister for works and services, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, as he inaugurated the festival at the Karachi Arts Council. “We have seen the peaceful days of Karachi, when it was full of happiness and love. Our young generation is also dreaming of peace which we can restore if we try.”
Bijarani attended the inauguration as the chief guest in place of Sindh chief minister who was absent due to meetings. He assured Pursukoon Karachi of the government’s full support and also announced Rs2.5 million grants for its projects. “This caravan will move ahead with its message of peace and love. People will join in and that time is not far when peace and love will replace terrorism.”
Noorjehan Bilgrami, the Pursukoon Karachi curator, lauded the efforts and support of the sponsors in their projects, particularly in ‘Umeed Ka Safar’ — a project to revitalise the Karachi Cantonment Railway Station. “Attend the festival and join hands with us in bringing back peace to the city.”
President and chief executive officer of the National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA), Zia Mohyeddin, and Karachi Arts Council President Muhammad Ahmed Shah also spoke at the ceremony.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2013.
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@Stellar. 53.38% of FBR's total collections come from Karachi, which means Karachi contributes 53.38% of the government's total tax revenue. 25% is what Karachi contributes to the GDP or National Revenue having 10% of Pakistan's total population. and when Mustafa Kamal says Karachi contributes to revenue, he's definitely not referring to GDP, but rather the tax revenue. (because I can see where do all these 'it is a myth that Karachi contributes so much to revenue' come from). Pray tell what does Karachi get in return? Lahore's metro bus project alone costed Rs. 32 bn while transfers from the Provincial and Federal Govt. to Karachi in 2012 totaled Rs. 14 bn.
It is a myth that Karachi contributes 70% of revenue to the national exchequer. Due to the Large Tax payer unit in the city and all Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) are in Karachi, it covers Hyderabad, Sukkur and Quetta and the entire province of Sindh and Baluchistan.
Also the customs duties and sales tax on imports is collected here as the two ports of the country is located in the city, namely Port Qasim and Karachi Port, for the goods imported for the whole country.
The actual contribution to the GDP of the country from Karachi is 25%, and this is also a significant amount.
'Karachi also accounts for 75.14% of customs duty and 79% of sales tax on imports.[1] Therefore, Karachi collects a significant 53.38% of the total collections of the Federal Board of Revenue, out of which 53.33% are customs duty and sales tax on imports.[1] Revenue collected from Karachi includes revenue from some other areas since the Large Tax Unit (LTU) Karachi and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur and Quetta cover the entire province of Sindh and Baluchistan.[1]' Karachi's indigenous contribution to national revenue is 25%.[3]
Nothing will change with these sort of artificial summits. To make Karachi peaceful one need to find the root cause. firstly stop mass unchecked migration to karachi from up country, kick out all the Afghanis from the city seal its borders for weapons smuggling, local policing, stop running karachi from interior sind and punjab, Karachi produces above 70% revenue for this country give back at least 10% for its infrastructure development, without all these few things karachi cant become Pursukoon