Karachi – a federal territory

Citizens have welcomed the arrival of the National Disaster Management Authority in Karachi and have demanded to hand over Karachi to the federal government. On the other hand, the worries of Sindh’s political parties have increased and have started criticizing in this regard in hushed words.

For the past 13 years, Pakistan People’s Party is ruling the province, but the citizens of Karachi are still deprived of their basic rights. The whole of Sindh is ruled by the PPP on the basis of majority, while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has the powers of the local bodies of major cities of Sindh.

In the tenure of President Pervez Musharraf, the Centre provided special financial packages for Karachi, which not only made Karachi beautiful but also provided an integrated system in which garbage was collected and storm drains were cleaned.

In those days, roads, bridges, underpasses were also built. Waterboard was under the control of the Karachi city government, so new sewerage lines were laid in the city. A project for drinking water was also completed in the same 4-year period, which was completed by MQM’s Mustafa Kamal following his party’s policy. Former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf also played a major role in this project.

However, with the resignation of former President Pervez Musharraf, Karachi has become a wasteland. Since then, the PPP government has never taken the issues seriously. Funds have been withheld, and the legal increase in the monthly OZT share has been stopped.

Some sources say that the PPP has made a policy that the MQM’s reputation can be tarnished only by snatching away the powers of the local bodies and withholding funds. However, PPP may have forgotten that the people of Karachi cannot be deceived, they always the PPP for the negligence.

The Sindh government turned Karachi Building Control Authority into Sindh Building Control Authority, the master plan was taken over, and property tax was also slashed. Due to this situation, local bodies are not able to solve the problems of the citizens.

The PPP is taking undue advantage of the 18th Amendment for its own political purposes. As a result of these frustrations and disappointments, people are welcoming the army sent by the Centre. And they are demanding that Karachi was part of the federation after the formation of Pakistan, so the federation should take it into its custody.

Don’t know why some people aren’t raising their voices against the incompetent government of Sindh. And when frustrated citizens talk about a separate province, the ego of such people wakes up.

Now, at the request of 25 million people of Karachi, the army has started the cleanliness drive in Karachi. It is necessary to understand the word ‘cleaning’, this cleaning is likely to remove a lot of dirt and citizens are likely to receive basic municipal rights.

Federal Law Minister Barrister Forough Naseem has been working on handing over Karachi to the federation for a long time and now this work is probably in the final stages of completion. The Centre will control the affairs of Karachi through the NDMA, which has been set up to help the affected areas or the affected citizens.

NDMA has started cleaning the drains and it is hoped that the positive effects of this cleaning in the coming torrential rains are expected to improve the conditions of Karachi. However, with the advent of NDMA, there has been unrest among political parties of Sindh and they are seeing their own political death in it.