Karachi has finally come under the much-needed national focus — thanks, unfortunately, to the recent record-breaking monsoon rains in the city that triggered unprecedented urban flooding and caused widespread damages — to the lives, civic infrastructure as well as public and private property. With the massive flood devastation calling in question the performance of the authorities and portraying Karachi as a city nobody owns, the governments at the Centre and in Sindh province — more precisely the PTI and the PPP — finally decided to join forces for transforming Karachi within a span of three years, realising that if Karachi prospers, the whole country will, and vice versa.
Prime Minister Imran Khan thus came down to Karachi from the federal capital on Saturday along with his close aides and announced a historic Rs1.1 trillion ‘Karachi Transformation Plan’ that is aimed at ridding the financial capital of the country of the six major municipal and infrastructure issues it has been suffering from for years and years. Addressing a press conference alongside Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Governor Imran Ismail, the PM said that the two governments had decided to deal with Karachi’s problems “together”, adding that the plan would be implemented through a Provincial Coordination Implementation Committee (PCIC) to be led by the Sindh CM.
As per the breakup of the Rs1.1 trillion package, the transformation plan features six mass transit projects worth Rs572 billion, including the Karachi Circular Railway, the Bus Rapid Transport and other transport services. Besides, Rs267 billion will be spent on projects related to solid waste management and cleaning of stormwater drains. An amount of Rs141 billion will be utilised for sewerage treatment. Projects worth Rs92 billion will ensure supply to clean drinking water to the citizens of Karachi. And Rs41 billion will be spent on several projects for construction and repair of roads.
And now we come to the most important question: where will the money come from? Well, according to Asad Umar, the Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives, both Centre and the Sindh government will provide Rs400 billion each to ensure that the ambitious plan could be put into practice to complete within the three-year timeframe. The two sides are to spare the money from their development budgets. As for the provision of the remaining Rs300 billion, according to the planning minister, talks have been in progress — with whom, he did not elaborate. However, it appears as if this monetary gap will be bridged through foreign funding.
Given the past experience, there are apprehensions as to the release of the funds that have been pledged and thus the realisation of the transformation plan. However, the air of harmony — which prevailed during the press conference that the PM addressed and the ‘Karachi Committee’ meeting prior to that — provides valid reasons for all stakeholders to harbour optimism this time around. The two sides avoided the typical war of words that describes the kind of working relation that they have developed over the last couple of years, and singularly focussed on Karachi and its various problems during the PM’s six-hour stay in Karachi. That the PM accepted the Sindh CM in the lead role does go to show that the two rival parties are ready to bury the hatchet for the sake of Karachi — in fact, for the sake of the whole country.
It remains to be seen though how the two sides rise above their political interests and complement each other’s efforts. They will, anyhow, have to. If Karachi is to be prevented from a total collapse, a strong PPP-PTI partnership is a must.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2020.
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