Imran offers garbage-fuelled desalination plant to Karachi

PTI chairperson says the party will resolve Karachi's water woes

KARACHI: Imran Khan proposed to solve Karachi’s garbage problem by using it to generate electricity, simultaneously powering a desalination plant for overcoming the water shortage in the city.

He made this declaration soon after PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif and PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari promised to convert Karachi into a model South Asian city.

Speaking with media persons here, he said: “My dream of New Pakistan cannot be realized until and unless I develop this city,” he said.

According to him, after coming into power, his party would also work to install a desalination plant in the city, converting seawater into clean drinking water, and quenching the thirst of its citizens.

“This desalination plant will run on power generated from garbage (produced in the city),” he said.

“I have plans for developing Karachi, which can turn this city into one of the best metropolitan cities in the region.”

Khan, who was on a three-day visit here, held meeting with leaders of the business community, addressed a public gathering and chaired a party meeting to discuss various electoral matters.

Urging party activists to work for mass mobilization in the city, Imran Khan said: “We cannot succeed and the country cannot be put on the path of prosperity unless the people of the city of the Quaid are galvanized to become the catalyst of change.”



Successive previous governments kept working for their vested interests and did nothing to modernize Karachi or work to ensure the prosperity of its citizens.

“Over the past 30 years, PPP and PML-N have been colluding with each other to secure their turns at government. They ruined state institutions and plundered public wealth,” he said.

Referring to the lavish residences of the sons of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Hassan and Hussain Nawaz, in London, he said: “They live in a house worth Rs6 billion. I want to know from they acquired the money to buy these luxury flats.”

Recounting PTI-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s success stories, he said: “One must learn from police reforms in K-P. Previous governments in both K-P and Punjab used police to victimize political foes and even kill innocent people.”

Referring to the suspended SSP Malir, Rao Anwar, Imran Khan said that he killed with impunity with the backing of the previous PPP government in Sindh.

“He has killed more than 420 people.”

Citing the Model Town killings, he said that something similar happened in Punjab during the previous PML-N government.

“As many as 32 politically-motivated cases have been registered against me by the Punjab government. We have made the K-P police an apolitical force which cannot be used to victimize anyone’s political rivals.”

Stressing upon the need for planting more trees in the country, he said that it was necessary for redressing critical environmental issues.

He said:  We have planted more than a billion trees in K-P. People taunted us when we espoused this plan. Now, we have successfully done it.”

Imran also said that if PTI was voted into power, his government would build as many as five million houses at subsidized rates for sheltering the poor people.

Speaking at the headquarters of the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD), Imran said: “PTI’s position in K-P and Punjab is strong. We will (surely) form the government at the Centre. Our government’s first priority will be to build a million houses for the poor every year. By the end of our tenure, we will have built five million such low-cost houses across the country.”