Won’t raze illegal homes sans alternative housing: Bilawal

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Sunday that the Sindh government will not knock down illegal settlements along Karachi’s drains until their occupants are provided with alternative places to reside.

Addressing a rally of party workers at KDA Chowrangi in city’s district central, he was of the view that the government will clean storm-water drains but will not render people living in illegal structures around nullahs homeless. He stressed upon the need for taking care of the affectees of the anti-encroachment drive.

Bilawal mentioned that the Green Line mass transit project wreaked havoc to Karachi’s drainage system, emphasising that the megacity’s drainage system will have to be fixed. He said people suffered a lot due to unprecedented monsoon rains in the metropolis.

Urging party workers to rally behind him like they used to support slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, he said the party’s government in Sindh will “snatch the NFC award and other rights from the Centre” with their support.

The statement came a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan announced a ‘historic’ Rs1.1 trillion financial package for the execution of a transformation plan meant to address the city’s chronic issues and meet its developmental requirements.

Briefing media about the Karachi package at Governor House on Saturday evening, the premier had said that the federal government was fully aware of the problems being faced by the people of Karachi over the past many years and the PTI government had now decided to resolve all perennial issues of the metropolis.