KARACHI: The provincial administration of Sindh initiated several development projects for Karachi in the last couple of years to improve the quality of life of its residents, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah told Arab News on Thursday.
“Public investments on development projects in Karachi have been scaled up since the last 5 years (2015 to 2020), focusing on infrastructure and human development,” he said in a WhatsApp message. “Overall, the security and investment environment has been improved significantly.”
The chief minister issued the statement only a day after the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) published its Global Livability Index of 140 cities, counting Karachi among the least livable places in the world.
The EIU considers various factors, such as stability, infrastructure, education and access to healthcare, while preparing the index.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which first emerged toward the end of 2019, played a critical role in its recent assessment this year as several European cities were downgraded on the list.
Karachi, Pakistan’s seaside metropolis of 15 million people, improved its overall ranking to the seventh least livable city from fourth in 2018 and fifth in 2019. However, it could not escape the unfavorable ranking owing to a multitude of challenges.
Zia Ur Rehman, a Karachi-based journalist and researcher, blamed the city’s complex division of governance for the failure to resolve its civic issues.
“The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party won the majority of national and provincial assembly seats from Karachi,” he said. “However, the provincial assembly is dominated by the Pakistan Peoples Party. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, meanwhile, ran Karachi’s city government and four out of six districts for four years until its dissolution last year.”
“Now instead of resolving the civic issues in the city by reaching a consensus on a doable and long-lasting division of power between the provincial and local governments, all three major political parties have been playing politics on these issues and trying to embarrass one another,” Rehman continued.
Arif Hasan, a Pakistani architect, planner and researcher, agreed with the assessment while advocating for local representation.
“To resolve the problems of the city, a truly representative local government must be put in place,” he said.
However, the Sindh chief minister listed his administration’s accomplishments in his messages to Arab News.
He noted that a $98 million Karachi Neighborhood Improvement Project was being executed to improve public spaces in targeted neighborhoods along with urban road infrastructure.
“Competitive and Livability City of Karachi (CLICK) is another project under which US$240 million will be spent on the institutional strengthening and infrastructure financing of local councils in Karachi,” he said, adding it would overhaul urban immoveable property tax and support ease of doing business.
“US$105 million are being spent for focusing on long-term strengthening of the KW&SB [Karachi Water and Sewerage Board] through multiple reforms under the Karachi Water Supply & Sanitation Improvement Project (KWSSIP),” he continued.
The Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) Yellow (US$438 million) and Red Line (US$561 million) were mega transportation interventions for the city, the chief minister added.
“In the next financial year, about $438 million will be budgeted for various development projects for Karachi in Annual Development Program 2021-22 in order to provide robust living standard for people of Karachi City,” Shah said.