SLUMS, INFRASTRUCTURE
AND PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Slums are a reality and their existence in the city can’t be negated but exactly when they started to appear or why the past regimes refrained from taking any steps to prevent their spread, is the question. A lot of critical issues facing the city pertain to them, and those residing in them lack most of the basic amenities of life. Karachi is not the only major city with this issue; Lahore and Islamabad are also victims to it, albeit marginally when compared to the former. The major cities of neighboring India, such as Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata house large slums. Karachi, according to a 1985 survey, houses several hundred slums.

In 1989, the elected council of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation passed a resolution to set rates to grant ownership and lease to these slums. The rates ranged from Rs25 square yards to Rs300 square yards. A lot of them were able to benefit from the facility but dozens of others were still left out. In 1999, a KMC administrator hiked the rates to Rs400 sq. yds. to Rs2500 sq. yds. As these were too high for the residents, the process of granting lease came to a halt, causing the metropolis dearly. I consulted the DCO and naib nazim and suggested that we revive the 1989 rates. Shafiq-ur-Rehman Paracha and Tariq Hassan fully supported the proposal, so did Muslim Pervez, Saeed Ghani, Siddiq Rathore and all other members of the council. After some time, the City Council reinstated the 1989 rates via a resolution. The new rates were as follows:

• 120 sq. yds. – Rs25 per sq. yd.
• 120 to 150 sq. yds. – Rs100 per sq. yd.
• Schools, madrassahs and hospitals – Rs300 per sq. yd.
• Places of worship (mosques, temples, churches and synagogues) – Rs1 per sq. yd.

By the time the mayorship concluded, we had provided lease to thousands of residents of dozens of slums and initiated development there. The lease plan involved considerable efforts by Gohar-ul-Islam, Qazi Saddruddin, Abid Ilyas, Abdul Rasheed Baig sahib and Muslim Pervez, while every town nazim was cooperative in this regard. General Ahsan Saleem Hayat was the new Corps Commander once Tariq Wasim Ghazi departed. During my interactions with him, there was one incident remained afresh in my memory for a long time. As a meeting was underway at the Corps Commander House, Ahsan Saleem Hayat entered the room with bloodied pants. The participants were both shocked and worried looking at him. He said: “Give me a few minutes, I will change and come back.” While he didn’t say anything about what had happened, his staff told us after the meeting that he had been the target of an assassination attempt. During the meeting, he did not make any mention of it, nor did he seem worried by any definition. It was probably during his era that the establishment decided to let the provincial government handle the local government as they had ‘settled in well’. This distancing by the architects of the city government was better in a way, but on the other hand, it was tantamount to encouraging some of the negative elements.

The chief minister already didn’t show interest in the local bodies and seemed helpless, particularly with regard to Karachi and Hyderabad. He would not react at all to the intervention by provincial ministers in various departments of city government. President Pervez Musharraf, too seemed distant from the situation. Ahsan Saleem Hayat also left after a short span and was succeeded by Syed Ather Ali as the Corps Commander. We happened to have an informal chat during a few meetings. He did not show much interest when I once spoke to him about the said intervention and asked him to play his role. During the conclusive days of my mayorship, I highlighted the increasing opposition of the city government and Corps Commander’s indifference to Tariq Wasim Ghazi during a meeting. In his response, he advised me to have a one-on-one talk with him, so I requested for it.

When I went to his office as per schedule, I saw an air vice marshal and other key personalities in the waiting room. Upon being informed about my arrival, he sought me before anyone else was invited to the room and we had an hour-long discussion. He said: “Initially, the president’s policy was to fully support you and development projects, and maintain a control on the provincial government, but now the policy and directives necessitate sharing powers with them.” “President Pervez Musharraf is really glad at your performance, but he doesn’t want the provincial government to be powerless either. He wants a working relationship between you and provincial ministers,” he added. He further expressed that his maternal relatives reside in Karachi and that they are all-praise for me.

Towards the conclusion of the meeting, when I told him about the hurdles and opposition, he said: “Have you discussed this with President Pervez Musharraf?” I replied: “He doesn’t even meet me now,” and I told him that I had also contacted other people to have a meeting arranged.

At this, Syed Ather Ali said: “Alright, let me try to arrange a meeting between you two.” After about three days, he called me and said: “Naimat sahib, Pervez Musharraf is refusing to have this meeting. He says the members of Muttahida Qaumi Movement object to his meetings with you and according to them, such interactions send a rather wrong message to the party’s workers.” I could understand everything now. The reason Pervez Musharraf had distanced himself was because he was focused on the 2008 elections and MQM had become really important to him. In order to prolong his rule, he wanted to earn a full support from them. In return, the party wanted a full support from his side against the city government, and he had surrendered.

New Developmental Projects

Despite the ups and downs and indifference of powerful architects of the pioneering local bodies system after a good start, the tale of how some of the major projects begun and ended is interesting. These were part of the long list of development initiatives taken alongside compatriots. After the completion of Shah Faisal and FTC flyovers, it was the Sharah-e-Quaideen flyover. A lot of work had been done and we were close to inaugurating the project when the provincial advisor suspended the project engineer and it went into a delay.The foundation stone of Sohrab Goth flyover was laid on April 28, 2005 and it was decided to build a 560-metre underpass at Gharibabad to resolve the issue of constant traffic jam on the road leading to Liaquatabad no. 10.

The underpass was initiated on December 7, 2004. The contractor of the project belonged to MQM and started to use delaying tactics and did so up until the conclusion of my mayorship. Other projects included building the road from Pahar Ganj to Qasba Colony by means of cutting a mountain, Karsaz and Quaidabad flyovers, Mauripur Road, Mehran Highway, and Nishter, Ibn-e-Sina, Rashid Minhas, Shah Waliullah, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Manghopir, Korangi 8 Hazar, Kalapul-Qayyumabad, Jahangir, Sibghatullah Shaheed and Greg’s Village-Seaside roads.

The development also included the historic project of Malir River Bridge on May 30, 2005. The 1,350-metre long and 23.60-metre wide bridge reduced the distance from Korangi to Shah Faisal Colony to just 15 minutes. Its cost was estimated to be Rs1.60 billion. The pillars had been erected and further construction was underway when my mayorship came to an end.

Public Transport

As the roads and bridges were being built, we were intensely feeling the need to revamp the transportation system as a whole. This was nothing less of inviting trouble because private transporters had a firm grip on the transport system for years. A lot of transporters weren’t bad, but police extortion, undue demands from those representing the MQM and some other factors had deteriorated the situation. An ordinary businessman couldn’t even think of investing in the sector. The number of buses, mini-buses and coaches operating in the city was less than half of the requirement. The plan put forth by Sweden’s M.R.V.P, the 1984 underground train plan, electrical tram and urban train bus service projects were all planned in the past but never saw the light of day. Then, in 1996, the government-run Karachi Transport Corporation was brought to the verge of destruction financially and shut down. Meanwhile, various tactics were used to ensure that the Karachi circular railway fails, to the extent that the 104-circular train system was shut in 1999 under the garb of commuters’ lack of interest.

Therefore, the city’s population of approximately two million people was forced to use the crumbling and smoke-billowing buses and wagons. The re-modeling of roundabouts, widened roads and several new flyovers had solved the critical issue of traffic jams to some extent, but many key issues still needed a solution. At this point, an Urban Transport Scheme was planned to improve the system of transportation. The federal government allowed concessions in terms of taxes in order to ensure the interest of local transporters as well as foreign investors in the scheme. Among the prerequisites, the driver and conductor of a bus needed to be literate and compliant with the traffic laws.

In a short span, 22 different companies responded to the opening. Under the urban transport scheme, Karachi Green Bus Company, Allied Services, Worldwide Motors, Al Aziz Road Transport Company, Q.S.F & Swede Bus Pak Ltd., International Trans Livia, Hilton Trans, Neelum Corporation, Altaf Shahrukh and Quaid City Bus Group started plying large buses in the metropolis. The federal government had issued a notification that a bus imported to a city would only be plied there and in return, the import duty and tax would be waived. We intended to import buses but the deadline was over until then. I went to Islamabad and met high-ups of the Central Board of Revenue. I asked them for some concession and they extended the deadline, enabling the import of 300 buses from a Swedish company and CNG-enabled vehicles of another company to Karachi.

These vehicles had a whole ticket machine installed in them and our officials would travel in them to keep a check on the system. A good number of office-goers began to prefer these air-conditioned green buses over their cars. We also planned ‘bus shelters’ to further facilitate the commuters. These shelters were to be developed on BOT (build, operate & transfer) basis and were divided into three phases. The level 1 was to comprise a simple shed and a small place for seating, level 2 – a tuck shop too while level 3 was envisaged to also have separate restrooms for men and women. It was already decided that the tuck shops would be run by disabled individuals. The first of the 470 bus shelters was built in front of Awami Markaz, Shahrah-e-Faisal, and work on others was underway.

Besides public transport, the intercity bus terminals also had significance because hundreds of buses traveled to and fro between Karachi and other different cities, carrying thousands. But since there were no proper stops, dozens of illegal bus terminals had emerged at Taj Medical Complex, Old Sabzi Mandi, Sohrab Goth, Banaras Chowk, Quaidabad and various other spots. The residents of these areas had spoken multiple times against these terminals and it was clear that the mushroom growth of these terminals was causing a host of issues.

There were three major points of entry and exit in the city, namely superhighway, National Highway and RCD Highway or Hub River Road. It was decided to set up intercity bus terminals at these highways to avoid the need for these large buses to enter the city at all. The transport department planned to establish the city’s first intercity bus terminal on a large piece of land in Yousuf Goth, Baldia Town. EDO Works & Services, Sarfaraz Ali Shah, EDO Transport Dr. Tahir Soomro, Project Director Mohammad Ather and my coordinator Mohammad Tufail worked really hard and as a team to turn this dream into a reality. Due to the efficacy of the project and my personal interest to make it a success, the finance department never let funds become a hurdle. This incredibly useful project was set to complete by May 31, 2005, but it met some delay in the final weeks to its completion.

We have a strange political culture that new regimes deliberately delay projects initiated by their predecessors so they can claim the credit. Sometimes, such projects are abolished without any sound reason and millions gathered through the taxes of the masses end up fueling negative politics. The terminal was finally inaugurated by Governor Sindh Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad on November 9, 2006, providing a useful facility to the buses traveling towards the city from Balochistan. In 1995, the KDA allocated a 45-acre land at Deh Batti Amri, Superhighway near Gulshan-e-Maymar for the intercity bus terminal. A large portion of this land had been occupied by land mafia for a long time. The occupation of state-owned land by political and apolitical mafias is a well-organized practice in Karachi, which has been on for so many years. The land is occupied with the help of police and corrupt officers of other departments of the government and so-called political leaders. Those involved make billions and trillions out of it so the heinous practice is difficult to stop. Once a land is occupied, the case reaches a court but hearings are carried out at a snail’s pace. Often, cases are decided in favor of the occupier due to the collusion between the state’s counsels and investigating officers.

20 acres of the land was recovered after immense efforts, including an operation by police and Rangers. Once a budget was allocated and the plan was finalized, the foundation stone of the project was laid. Likewise, a 15-acre land was allocated in Shah Latif Town in front of the Malir Development Authority’s office for a bus terminal at the National Highway. We also issued a tender after its foundation stone was laid on December 2, 2004. Unfortunately, the successive rulers didn’t pay attention to it. The widening of roads and remodeling of roundabouts allowed faster traffic but it made crossing the road difficult for pedestrians. To solve this, we decided to set up zebra crossing, lane parking as well as pedestrian bridges at 28 spots of the city’s busiest streets. The pedestrian bridges – to cost around Rs5.5 to Rs6 million – were to be based on the previous BOT model. 13 bridges were developed in the beginning.

The issue of parking had also worsened with the increase in the public and private transport in the city. The surveys also suggested that the situation may spiral out of control if the matter is delayed. After due consultation, we decided to build multi-storey parking plazas, following the example of developed countries. Initially, it was decided to build the plaza at three busy spots, including Saddar’s Empress Market, Clifton and Hassan Square, but only Empress Market plaza was built. Even then, people were unable to fully benefit from it due to a lack of proper arrangements. A road safety education program was also planned to slow down the increasing traffic mishaps in the city.

The comprehensive plan included training of the drivers and commoners to follow traffic rules. It also resulted in the setting up a road safety educational unit for children, with the staff visiting different schools of the metropolis to make children aware about road safety via lectures and videos.

We also planned to reopen the KTCK drivers’ training institute, SITE to improve the behavior of drivers and conductors with the passengers in public transport. The institute had been closed for the past several years. This project also died down once my mayorship came to its conclusion.