Someone has to check how this master plan is implemented, say experts
Staff Report
KARACHI: Speakers at a workshop have asked the city government to form an oversee committee to monitor the implementation on the Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020 (KSDP 2020). They have also demanded the city be managed by one authority so uniform policies are maintained. They also stressed the city government publicize reports from the sectors as they have yet to be incorporated into KSDP 2020.
The second KSDP 2020 workshop was organized by NGO Shehri-CBE in collaboration with the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung FUR DIE FREIHEIT on Saturday at a local hotel. The speakers were Roland deSouza, Amber Alibhai, Shahab Ghani, Masood Jaffery, Qaiser Bengali, representatives of civil society and senior members of Shehri-CBE. The aim of holding the workshop was to discuss the role of the city government in implementing the plan throughout the city besides discussing the inefficiencies and hurdles in the way.
EDO Master Plan Group of Offices Iftikhar Qaimkhani and his team attended the first workshop held last month, but were reluctant to come to this one. “They literally refused to take part in this session, even as observers,” said Shehri’s Amber Alibhai.
Renowned town planner Masood Jaffery recalled the background of the KSDP 2020 and said that the city government initiated the project as Master Plan 2020 only to later change it to Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020 as it was getting confused with the Planning Commission’s Vision 2020. “Though they changed the name, they did not fulfill the formalities on paper,” he mentioned.
In the meantime, when the city government finalized the document, most of its studies were outdated as they did not take a lot of the stakeholders on board. The whole plan lacked numeric data as well as commitments for implementation.
Commenting on the housing sector, as mentioned in KSDP 2020, Masood Jaffery said that there was no need for new housing schemes, but the houses in ‘katchi abadis’ should be leased to fulfill the need for housing facilities for low-income groups.
Similarly, the Mass Transit System has been approved for the last 25 years but no one has taken any action to implement it. Jaffery asked why this was so? Suggesting a solution, he said, “The time has come to improve the overall infrastructure of the city and develop a one-window solution. The city government should bring in representatives from the local transport sector, including tanker operators and trade unions, like the ones present today (Saturday) on one platform, and present a common solution after debating relevant issues,” he said.
Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners Chairman Shahab Ghani Khan suggested that the capability of the Master Plan Group of Offices be increased and that sectoral reports should be brought to the surface for the public.
Meanwhile, economist Qaiser Bengali questioned the motivation behind preparing this plan as there are no donors funding the projects. “In the previous two Karachi master plans there was funding from foreign donors. There is no such thing here either,” he said.
Questions were also raised over the city government’s violation of its own condition that no one was allowed to grab coastal land, as it says in the KSDP 2020.
One of the speakers also mentioned that in 1974 the government directed all cantonment areas in the middle of the city to be given to the local administration, which was not done. Instead, in 1983, another cantonment board, the Clifton Cantonment Board, was established.
Speakers agreed that the city government should form an oversee committee of distinguished citizen to monitor the implementation of the master plan and suggested that the control of all land in the city should be given to one authority including all stakeholders, such as cantonment boards, KPT, CAA, the Pakistan Railways.
