Sindh government announces plans to launch a project for Karachi costing several billions of rupees
KASHMORE: The Sindh government has recently announced plans to launch a liveable city project for Karachi costing several billions of rupees. The scheme is to be carried out with the assistance of the World Bank. The announcement shows that the Sindh government has admitted the fact Karachi has gradually been becoming unliveable. Considering the track record of the government with regard to meeting its promises, people are sceptic whether the government will fulfil its promise or will it meet the fate of many of its other promises?
In Karachi, and many other cities and towns of the province civic structure has crumbled and the government is cruelly turning a blind eye to the people’s problems. Public transport is near-absent in most cities of the province. People have to wait more than hour for a bus to get to their destinations. For inter-city travels one has to give in to bullying tactics of the transport mafia. The situation has deteriorated so much so that we may not be wrong if we say we are living in a primitive society. During inter-city journeys one has stay overnight in cheap lodging houses to get the next connecting bus. This happened in the middle of 20th century in the subcontinent. Then only one bus ran between two places in 24 hours. My grandfather used to tell about his father’s experience of long-distance journeys. People who missed a connecting bus and train had to stay overnight in cheap lodging houses, which were also called hotels, if they missed the connecting bus or train for their onward journey. In these dirty lodging houses several people had to spend nights on one large bed. There was a joke that if someone wanted to sleep on his back he had to pay double rent.
Ayub Khan
Published in The Express Tribune, July 19th, 2019.
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