KARACHI: The governor of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province has said the central government planned to invest $50 billion to develop two islands off the Karachi coastline on the Arabian Sea into a city that would ‘surpass’ Dubai.’
Imran Ismail’s comments come as the central government, led by Prime Minister Imran Khan, is entangled in a legal duel with the provincial Sindh government over ownership of the two islands, called Buddoo and Bundal.
“People are already approaching the government for investment in the project,” Ismail told reporters in Islamabad this week, saying a $50 billion investment would turn the proposed city into a tourist attraction for over five million tourists.
On August 31, President Dr Arif Alvi promulgated an ordinance to establish a “Pakistan Islands Development Authority” to develop and manage islands in the “internal and territorial waters of Pakistan.”
The government of the southwestern province of Balochistan, which has a vast coastline, has welcomed the ordinance but in Sindh, the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has demanded it be immediately withdrawn.
“The Pakistan People’s Party will oppose the illegal annexation of Sindh’s Islands through Presidential ordinance by the PTI government,” PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said in a tweet. “Move will be opposed in National, Provincial Assembly & the Senate.”
This week, senior lawyer Shahab Usto also moved the Sindh High Court against the “arbitrary and unconstitutional takeover” of islands off the coast of Sindh.
In a tweet, Usto said his constitutional petition against “the arbitrary and unconstitutional takeover of our islands” was heard on Thursday morning and notices were issued to the federal and provincial governments.
“Now the matter is in the hon'ble High Court. Now we will fight the legal battle with the constitutional means,” the tweet said.
Pakistan has been mulling developing the islands since 2008, when then ruler General Pervez Musharraf struck a deal with a Dubai-based construction company to build a model city over 12,000 acres, complete with a 1.5km long bridge, at a cost of $50 million. That plan didn’t materialize.
