Coordination committee: ‘If world wars were settled at the table, so can Karachi’s problems’
City agencies meet for fourth time to hack through problems.
“Please don’t try and solve your problems on the street,” thundered the commissioner right at the outset. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI:
If World Wars were settled at the table, so can Karachi’s. This is the driving philosophy behind Commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui’s heft which he wields either by raising the decibel level in the room or by slipping a velvet glove over an iron fist.
On Thursday, he sat at the head of a table in a hall at the Karachi gymkhana booked for the fourth meeting of the Karachi division coordination committee. In a nutshell that mouthful means that officers from all the agencies related to the city’s management had come together to talk — from the navy to the police and from the office of parks to the building control authority. (Someone got into trouble for failing to ensure the water board turned up).
And indeed perhaps that was a good thing, for if a water board representative had come, he would have received a verbal spanking from the commissioner for their recent very public fight over bills with the Karachi Electric Supply Company. “Please don’t try and solve your problems on the street,” thundered the commissioner right at the outset. “For God’s sake, don’t do this. We would hate to use our administrative and legal powers.” Water and power should not be a battlefield in an already strained city. If any city agency had a problem with another government department they can ask the commissioner’s office to mediate or help.
What followed then was a session in which directives were issued, updates were given and plans were formed. Anyone found doing wall chalking will be arrested. Beggars will be removed from under bridges, flyovers and signals. No trees will be cut for billboards. CCTV cameras will be installed in district Central and Sher Shah Suri Road. Nazimabad No 7’s traffic engineering plan will be in place in a week. Even though the boundaries have changed, district Malir will continue to monitor the polio virus outbreaks in its old UC 4 area. No buildings without plans for ramps will be approved by the KBCA. The National Highway Authority and KESC will discuss the underground cables at the Lyari Expressway. The Civil Defense department will get help to train reluctant factories in fire-fighting drills.
Encroachments and charged parking
Part of the discussion was dominated by encroachments. Next week the deputy commissioner West will be removing tea hotels in SITE if they are encroaching on public pathways.
“Hawke’s bay Road is a huge problem,” added one official. “Shershah flyover has encroachments as does Quaidabad where they were removed but reappeared because of political influence.” The police said that they had spoken to Khalid Khan of the United Goods Transporters Alliance about removing trucks clogging up Mauripur Road, especially around Dua Hotel and Bengali Para. He said that until the police started challaning people even he couldn’t get them to budge.
Someone pointed out that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) issues permission slips to shops etc to take over footpaths and other such public spots. “You will not honour those permissions,” said the commissioner. “They are not worth the paper they are written on.”
The commissioner said the police had to arrest anyone found faking charged parking as well. “How is it that in the presence of the police someone has the cheek to do this,” he asked.
“The KMC system allows them to sublet the space out,” said the police. “The main contractor is not managing it... And they are going to have 21 more sites but the traffic police were not consulted.” To this the commissioner ordered that the KMC charged parking director and traffic police meet on Monday.
Deputy commissioner South Mustafa Jamal commented on how a major bank was unhappy about the charged parking contracts because it affected its security when money vans come on II Chundrigar road. This artery perhaps needs a parking plaza like the one on Zaibunnissa Street at Center Mall that may charge Rs50 for one hour but has a computerised system. Location is key, as say the Saddar parking plaza has barely a 15% occupancy rate.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2013.
If World Wars were settled at the table, so can Karachi’s. This is the driving philosophy behind Commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui’s heft which he wields either by raising the decibel level in the room or by slipping a velvet glove over an iron fist.
On Thursday, he sat at the head of a table in a hall at the Karachi gymkhana booked for the fourth meeting of the Karachi division coordination committee. In a nutshell that mouthful means that officers from all the agencies related to the city’s management had come together to talk — from the navy to the police and from the office of parks to the building control authority. (Someone got into trouble for failing to ensure the water board turned up).
And indeed perhaps that was a good thing, for if a water board representative had come, he would have received a verbal spanking from the commissioner for their recent very public fight over bills with the Karachi Electric Supply Company. “Please don’t try and solve your problems on the street,” thundered the commissioner right at the outset. “For God’s sake, don’t do this. We would hate to use our administrative and legal powers.” Water and power should not be a battlefield in an already strained city. If any city agency had a problem with another government department they can ask the commissioner’s office to mediate or help.
What followed then was a session in which directives were issued, updates were given and plans were formed. Anyone found doing wall chalking will be arrested. Beggars will be removed from under bridges, flyovers and signals. No trees will be cut for billboards. CCTV cameras will be installed in district Central and Sher Shah Suri Road. Nazimabad No 7’s traffic engineering plan will be in place in a week. Even though the boundaries have changed, district Malir will continue to monitor the polio virus outbreaks in its old UC 4 area. No buildings without plans for ramps will be approved by the KBCA. The National Highway Authority and KESC will discuss the underground cables at the Lyari Expressway. The Civil Defense department will get help to train reluctant factories in fire-fighting drills.
Encroachments and charged parking
Part of the discussion was dominated by encroachments. Next week the deputy commissioner West will be removing tea hotels in SITE if they are encroaching on public pathways.
“Hawke’s bay Road is a huge problem,” added one official. “Shershah flyover has encroachments as does Quaidabad where they were removed but reappeared because of political influence.” The police said that they had spoken to Khalid Khan of the United Goods Transporters Alliance about removing trucks clogging up Mauripur Road, especially around Dua Hotel and Bengali Para. He said that until the police started challaning people even he couldn’t get them to budge.
Someone pointed out that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) issues permission slips to shops etc to take over footpaths and other such public spots. “You will not honour those permissions,” said the commissioner. “They are not worth the paper they are written on.”
The commissioner said the police had to arrest anyone found faking charged parking as well. “How is it that in the presence of the police someone has the cheek to do this,” he asked.
“The KMC system allows them to sublet the space out,” said the police. “The main contractor is not managing it... And they are going to have 21 more sites but the traffic police were not consulted.” To this the commissioner ordered that the KMC charged parking director and traffic police meet on Monday.
Deputy commissioner South Mustafa Jamal commented on how a major bank was unhappy about the charged parking contracts because it affected its security when money vans come on II Chundrigar road. This artery perhaps needs a parking plaza like the one on Zaibunnissa Street at Center Mall that may charge Rs50 for one hour but has a computerised system. Location is key, as say the Saddar parking plaza has barely a 15% occupancy rate.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2013.