Last-minute rush: KMC moves to develop Lyari ahead of elections
Each day the governor is asked to inaugurate a new park or inspect a new road.
KARACHI:
Pressed by the ruling party, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has rushed to rehabilitate abandoned hospitals, maternity homes, schools and colleges in the Pakistan Peoples Party stronghold of Lyari, officials and party leaders say.
The KMC runs five maternity homes, five dispensaries, two hospitals and 61 schools in Lyari. Most of the facilities are in shambles due to years of neglect.
The awakening to spend money on infrastructure in one of Karachi’s most impoverished and crime-ridden parts comes ahead of the general elections next year and only after neighbourhood leaders raised a hue and cry, they said.
“It is strange that the PPP has been in power for the last four years but they have come to care about their vote bank now,” said a senior PPP Karachi leader. “I still want to know what happened to the Rs3.5 billion Lyari package.”
KMC Administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed called his senior officials on Tuesday to tell them to speed up work on different projects, especially the hospitals, which need paramedic staff and basic equipment such as back-up power generators.
“PPP activists from Lyari were forced to keep their mouths shut because of party discipline. Whatever is being done now should not be hogwash,” the disgruntled leader said.
Despite repeated attempts, the administrator for the southern region, Muhammad Raeesi did not respond to requests for comment. Administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed was also unavailable for comment.
PPP’s president for the southern region, which includes Lyari, Khalil Hoat, said meetings are being held with KMC officials on a regular basis. “Come and see it for yourself, the change is coming,” he said referring to new sewerage lines being laid in the area. He did not share specific details.
While Hoat avoided the question about the Lyari package, he insisted that money was being spent. “There is a medical university, colleges and hospitals.”
Not just Lyari
Since the Mustafa Kamal-led local government completed its term in 2009, work on most of the development projects in Karachi hit snags. But the KMC Administrator started making payments to their contractors about a month back.
Governor Ishratul Ebad, a key leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, is being invited every other day to inaugurate a park, review work on some road or lay the foundation stone of some other project.
A KMC official said it is a last ditch attempt to win the hearts of the voters as the MQM has given up the hope of seeing the local government system revived before the elections.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 3rd, 2012.
Pressed by the ruling party, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has rushed to rehabilitate abandoned hospitals, maternity homes, schools and colleges in the Pakistan Peoples Party stronghold of Lyari, officials and party leaders say.
The KMC runs five maternity homes, five dispensaries, two hospitals and 61 schools in Lyari. Most of the facilities are in shambles due to years of neglect.
The awakening to spend money on infrastructure in one of Karachi’s most impoverished and crime-ridden parts comes ahead of the general elections next year and only after neighbourhood leaders raised a hue and cry, they said.
“It is strange that the PPP has been in power for the last four years but they have come to care about their vote bank now,” said a senior PPP Karachi leader. “I still want to know what happened to the Rs3.5 billion Lyari package.”
KMC Administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed called his senior officials on Tuesday to tell them to speed up work on different projects, especially the hospitals, which need paramedic staff and basic equipment such as back-up power generators.
“PPP activists from Lyari were forced to keep their mouths shut because of party discipline. Whatever is being done now should not be hogwash,” the disgruntled leader said.
Despite repeated attempts, the administrator for the southern region, Muhammad Raeesi did not respond to requests for comment. Administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed was also unavailable for comment.
PPP’s president for the southern region, which includes Lyari, Khalil Hoat, said meetings are being held with KMC officials on a regular basis. “Come and see it for yourself, the change is coming,” he said referring to new sewerage lines being laid in the area. He did not share specific details.
While Hoat avoided the question about the Lyari package, he insisted that money was being spent. “There is a medical university, colleges and hospitals.”
Not just Lyari
Since the Mustafa Kamal-led local government completed its term in 2009, work on most of the development projects in Karachi hit snags. But the KMC Administrator started making payments to their contractors about a month back.
Governor Ishratul Ebad, a key leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, is being invited every other day to inaugurate a park, review work on some road or lay the foundation stone of some other project.
A KMC official said it is a last ditch attempt to win the hearts of the voters as the MQM has given up the hope of seeing the local government system revived before the elections.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 3rd, 2012.