Stakeholders realise their role in developing Karachi: Punjab governor

KARACHI: The Punjab Governor, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, has said that every stakeholder has now realized its obligation to take part in development and progress of Karachi, considering its importance as the hub of the country’s economy and industry. He said “everybody will work for development of Karachi and the federal and Sindh governments will also join hands for the purpose."

The Punjab governor said this on Wednesday during a breakfast meeting with a select group of journalists here at the Sindh Governor's House. Sarwar, accompanied by philanthropists from Punjab, was on an emergency visit of Sindh to take part in relief activities for the disaster-struck people. Dr Muhammad Amjad Saqib, founder of Akhuwat Foundation that is working for the calamity-hit people in Sindh, was also present on the occasion.

Sarwar said that all the stakeholders must act in unison for progress of Karachi. A partnership of sorts is developing between the Centre and Sindh for the development of megapolis. He said it was high time to do justice with Karachi as it had witnessed devastation due to terrorism in the past. “Now is the time to develop Karachi,” said Sarwar.

The Punjab governor said that Karachi contributes more than any other city towards the national revenue. “The generous people of Karachi have always contributed extraordinarily whenever Pakistan faced any natural calamity or disaster,” he noted. He said that the recent torrential monsoon rains in Karachi had emerged as a natural calamity. “Our cities are not designed to withstand so much rain. No doubt there were shortcomings in our management to tackle it but keep in mind that when there is a calamity, we are unable to manage it no matter how much good governance is,” he said.

He said the good aspect was that every stakeholder was working to provide relief to the disaster-hit people of Karachi, besides army, Rangers, and the NDMA are performing their role.

The governor said he had a good interaction with the Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah the other day who appreciated his gesture to lead a group of Punjab-based charities and philanthropists to help the disaster-hit people of Sindh.

Sarwar said the biggest problem confronting the country was that all the powers had been concentrated with the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment but the provincial governments have not devolved those to the local governments.

He said that with the support of a network of the Punjab-based charities and philanthropists, some 100,000 rain-affected people in Sindh would be provided food ration bags worth Rs350 million. Apart from this, 10,000 deprived families would be provided with interest-free loans up to Rs100,000 for repair of their damaged houses. The same network had earlier spent Rs six billion for support of the destitute families in Punjab during the Covid-19 lockdown. The Punjab-based philanthropists and welfare organizations have a plan to expand their relief work in Sindh.