People affected by anti-encroachment operations to be rehabilitated, says Wahab

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has decided to rehabilitate affected families of the anti-encroachment drive in various areas of the city.

For this purpose, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation Administrator and Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Law Barrister Murtaza Wahab said land would be allocated to the affected families at various places for their resettlement.

He was speaking at a workshop held at the Competitive & Livable City of Karachi Project for Pakistan (CLICK) office on Thursday. The workshop was organised in collaboration with civil society, World Bank and Sindh government. Metropolitan Commissioner Syed Afzal Zaidi, deputy commissioners of various districts, administrators and municipal commissioners were also present on the occasion.

The Karachi administrator said that the process of removing encroachments was under way under the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and steps were being taken to provide alternative accommodation to those who had been affected.

He said the KMC was also taking steps against the mafia which made illegal occupation of land possible. He maintained that a strategy would be formulated so that the vacated places could not be occupied again in the future.

He said efforts would be made to ensure that no encroachment took place in the city in the future. He said the World Bank was providing funds for various projects for Karachi. Barrister Wahab explained that these projects included construction of roads, replacement of expansion joints of flyovers, construction of a fish house in Clifton and others. The KMC administrator said that civil society played a significant role for the betterment of any society and requested the representatives of civil society to provide guidance to the government for the improvement, development and image building of the city so that the city could be modernised with its historical heritage preserved.

“Improvement, development and successful completion of projects is possible only with the cooperation of various institutions,” he maintained, adding that numerous projects were under way in the city under the KMC and their positive effects would be soon observed in the city.