Karachi Circular Railway: With Japan out, Sindh govt eyes China

Parliamentary minister admits city's law and order situation is not good.

KARACHI: Sindh's transport minister Mumtaz Jakhrani had some bad news for members of the Sindh Assembly on Monday. He informed them that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) will not be giving them any financial support to complete the Karachi Circular Railway project.

The Japanese agency was investing Rs 2.6billion in the project by giving the amount as a soft loan with a markup of 0.1 per cent for the next 30 years. They decided to backtrack on the agreement after people who lived on the route did not want to be relocated due to the project and took the matter up in court.

The minister claimed that the Japanese company got cold feet after the case went to court. He alleged that the federal government was interfering with their plans and if they had not, the provincial government would have signed the agreement with another international donor to complete the project.

"There is a 60/40 share between the federal and provincial government," he said. "Let us pass a law on this issue and get rid of the federal government, so that Sindh can engage the international donors itself." He added that, on a recent visit to China, Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari had tried to convince Chinese companies to invest in the circular railway project. "They are willing to invest," said Jakhrani, while responding to queries made by other MPAs. "I hope we will be able to find an alternative to Jica." He added that his department had announced a decrease in public transport fares but the transporters were not willing to implement the new rates.

Crime and Karachi

Contrary to statements issued by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah regarding the city's improving law and order situation, the minister for parliamentary affairs, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, confessed that all was not well in the city.

This was said in response to a call-attention notice moved by Muttahida Qaumi Movement's MPA Muhammad Hussain on the Karachi operation. "There is nothing wrong in admitting that the law and order situation is not under control," he said. "The government had started a targeted operation and it is now in full swing. No political party or group was targeted in it." He added that action was only being taken against criminals and terrorists.

According to Hussain, during 2013-14, around 12 party workers and 27 police men were victims of targeted killings. He added that so far, 33 target killers had been arrested.

"Doctors, engineers and lawyers are being killed in Orangi Town," he said. "Law enforcers have failed to keep the situation under control. Now, doctors have started to move their clinics from areas which have become no-go areas." It may be recalled that the MQM had spent most of the past year complaining that the Karachi operation was targeting its activists.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2015.