The Sindh government and the Mayor of Karachi have come to the conclusion that charged parking should be completely abolished from the city, as Karachi's traffic system has not improved since a long time. Even though a deadline of June 30th has been set by the authorities, urban planners and citizens remain sceptical about whether or not the decision can actually resolve the traffic problems plaguing the city.
Talks about the abolition of charged parking started after a meeting held in January under the chairmanship of Sindh Chief Secretary Asif Haider Shah. During the meeting, it was informed that charged parking was obstructing roads at more than 400 places in the city. In the following month, Mayor Karachi Murtaza Wahab held a meeting with the Chief Secretary, during which he announced the abolition of charged parking after June 30, 2025. Immediately after, the Traffic Police started giving the impression that charged parking had been abolished from the city, but at the same time, citizens' vehicles were removed from business centers like Saddar Town, where charged parking continues at 28 points.
As per estimates, 22,000 to 23,000 motorcycles and 6,000 cars are added to Karachi's roads every month. Despite such a large number of vehicles, most of the residential and commercial buildings in the city do not have parking facilities. Data from the Sindh Building Control Authority has revealed that only 31 multi-storey buildings in the city have parking spaces available, where only 5,000 vehicles can be parked, while the parking spaces available in the other 30 multi-storey buildings are used for shops, warehouses and other purposes.
According to Farhan Anwar, an urban planner and Assistant Professor at the Habib University, charged parking exists all over the world however, developed countries have formally created parking zones.
"In Pakistan, vehicles are parked on the streets, but there is no system of monitoring them. Moreover, vehicles are often parked in three lanes, which creates a host of traffic problems. In many places, additional parking fees are charged, and even the collectors do not know who is receiving the money.
Therefore, it is necessary to have a regular parking policy, under which parking zones should be created at appropriate places and then it should be decided what parking rates will be fixed. Across the world, parking charges are determined on the basis of time hence parking for long hours will cost more. Similarly, we too should come up with a parking system," observed Anwar.
Where experts have highlighted the importance of upgrading the parking system, questions have also been raised on the transparency of the current charged parking contracts. According to the special audit report issued by the Auditor General of Pakistan in 2018-19, various local bodies either award charged parking contracts without auction or keep the reserve price secret at the time of auction. Therefore, full collections are not made from the contractors in terms of advance income tax and Sindh Sales Tax on Services.
Bashir Ahmed Memon, Deputy Director of Charged Parking, Saddar Town, told The Express Tribune that he had written letters to the concerned section officers that the town had given contracts to collect charged parking fees from at least 28 designated places including Saddar, New Chali, Joria Bazaar, Gul Plaza, Civil Hospital, Lady Dufferin Hospital, II Chandigarh Road and Clifton. However, the Traffic Police did not respond to these letters.
It should be noted that charged parking in Karachi falls under the management of various institutions. These include KMC, Cantonment Boards, KDA and the Town Municipal Corporations. KMC charges parking fee at 64 locations across the city.
The Express Tribune tried to contact DIG Traffic Karachi Pir Muhammad Shah to gain further insight on the situation however, he chose not to respond.
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