Failed projects: Sindh govt bids farewell to its futile development firm

Since the establishment of the SLMDCL in 2010, Sindh has spent millions of rupees to ‘run’ the nonfunctional company

KARACHI: After setting up and spending millions of rupees on an idle public real estate enterprise, the provincial government has finally decided to shut it down to add to its trail of misdeeds and misgovernance.

Known as the Sindh Land Management and Development Company (SLMDCL), the enterprise was established in 2010 in a bid to develop residential and commercial projects across Sindh and to execute land-management task and activities per its policies.

Unwarranted expenses

For an entire decade, the company remained dysfunctional due to the non-availability of relevant tasks but the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led government continued to ‘run’ the company and wasted millions to cover office rent and salaries of SLMDCL employees and officers, among other miscellaneous expenditures.

Per sources, the provincial government initially sanctioned Rs300 million for the company, while the finance department later released another Rs200 million.

According to the company’s website, the SLMDCL was a ‘private entity’ set up under the Companies Ordinance 1984, charted by the Government of Sindh. It was one of the first endeavours of its kind in the country, set up ‘to bring a steady and continuous improvement in the investment climate of the province and, more specifically, bring about discipline in real estate development and management.’



Unexecuted tasks

The company was mainly responsible to set up low-cost housing schemes in all districts of the province in addition to developing a modern city called Zulfiqarabad along the coastal belt of Thatta and Sajawal. Due to the company’s nonfunctional status, however, both the tasks were handed over to other bodies.

The company was also assigned the task of developing low-cost housing schemes for poor families in various districts of the province in name of the party’s leader and the former prime minister of Pakistan, Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. Under the plan, SLMDCL had to develop “Benazir Towns” in every district of the province, including Karachi. According to the website of the SLMDCL, ‘over one million acres of land was identified and geo-referenced for the development of townships for the poor’.

To that end, in July 2011, the Sindh government allocated 1,000 acres of land in Kemari to develop the Benazir Town in Karachi. The SLMDCL was given the task to develop 10,000 plots in the said town and the company even started the demarcation of the land after conducting a survey. However, it could not continue its work as the government transferred the task to the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Housing Cell (SBBHC).

As for the development of Zulfiqarabad, the company was asked to start land management activities, GIS and business development functions of the project in July 2010. However, after around a year, the government handed over the Zulfiqarabad project to the newly-formed Zulfiqarabad Development Authority.

At present, Member Board of Revenue Makhdoom Shakeel-uz-Zaman is serving as the acting chief executive officer (CEO) of the SLMDCL. The company’s board of directors is headed by the former caretaker chief minister and ex-chief secretary Sindh, Fazl-ur-Rehman.

When contacted by The Express Tribune, Fazl-ur-Rehman confirmed that the government has decided to shut down the company.

“The chief minister of Sindh, Syed Murad Ali Shah, has given the approval to wrap up the company and we will soon be shutting it down after completing the required formalities,” he said.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2020.