‘Lack of census major obstacle to research on Karachi’s issues’

The lack of a census is a great obstacle in conclusive research on the issues of Karachi, James C Witte, the director of the Centre for Social Science Research, George Mason University, USA, said on Tuesday.

He was addressing an international conference titled: “Managing Megacities 2016”, organised by the Department of Public Administration, the University of Karachi and Shar School of Public Policy and Government, George Mason University, USA at the HEJ Auditorium, KU.

Mentioning the sharing of the key findings of the Karachi Megacities survey, Witte said 96 percent of the people think that higher education was one of the greatest needs of the people of Karachi while a majority of 71 percent was satisfied with the current higher education system.

Witte informed the audience that he felt great pleasure in working with his Pakistani counterparts and the young researchers.

Renowned architect Arif Hasan said the future of Karachi was in the region’s geopolitical situations and city’s relations with the rest of Sindh.

The Pakistan People’s Party-led government soon after taking over the government took control of different departments including transport and building control because of which the problems of the city increased, he noted.

He observed that a decentralised local body system was pivotal for Karachi’s progress in the right direction. ”Around 62 percent of the city still lives in unplanned settlements while there are as many as 1,730,000 motorcycles on the roads of the city causing administrative and civic problems every day.”

Informing the audience about the history of Karachi, Hasan said the city was the very first airport of the British India where its port was the headquarters of the British Army during the World War-I.

He added that Karachi was a Hindu-majority and a Sindhi-speaking city in 1947, but the migration had changed it into Urdu speaking and Muslim majority metropolis in the post 1947 era. Hasan claimed that current population of Karachi was 22 million and it was the fastest growing city in the world.

A Turkish Professor, Tuzin Baycan, while giving her presentation on Istanbul said that it was the only city in the world connecting two continents. “It’s the heart of the world. It has 53 universities and the national air carrier Turkish Airlines is the number one airline of Europe.”

She said the problems of Karachi and Istanbul were relatable that was why a comparison could be made between both the megacities.

Dr Rashmi Sadana of the George Mason University, US, thoroughly discussed the transportation system of the capital city of India, New Delhi. She termed Delhi Metro as a great saviour for the middle class of the city since from young students to people related to every walk of life are benefited from the service daily.

“Delhi has the worst pollution of any city in India, largely due to vehicle emissions and particulate matter from building construction. The environment and pollution add to the discourse of life and death,” she mentioned while discussing the pollution problem of Delhi.

The American Consulate Karachi Cultural Attaché, Anthony Dean, pointed out that it was just a small step towards bridging the gap between Pakistani and American people and mentioned that his government will continue its support to the Pakistani educational institutions in this regard.

KU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Qaiser informed the audience that the policy recommendations of the conference would be sent to the government and policy making institutions for playing a positive role towards resolving the problems of our city.

“The main problems of Karachi have remained unresolved because not having the census in years.

The researchers and scientists are unable of conducting result oriented research on the problems of Karachi since the latest and authentic data is unavailable due to no census since last 18 years.”