KARACHI:Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the federal government has constituted a ‘Strategic Committee on Karachi’ for which neither he has been consulted nor taken into confidence.
Like other people, I have heard about the constitution of Strategic Committee on news channels, he said while talking to media along with Governor Sindh Imran Ismail after offering Fateha on Mazar-e-Quaid on his 71st death anniversary.
To a question, the chief minister said: “I don’t know what the committee will do and what its mandate is” He said he was not consulted or taken into confidence on formation of the committee.
However, the Sindh Governor told media that the committee has been made under Federal Minister for Law Farogh Naseem and its task was to examine the job of various civic authorities such as KPT, KMC, DMCs and others operating in the city. He added that the committee would explore ways and means whether a single authority could be made or not to run the city, and submit its recommendations to the federal government.
However, Murad Shah said that the lifting of garbage and sweeping of the roads were the jobs of the third tier, local government. He added that the KMC has various major storm water drains to maintain them and some of the smaller Nullah are with the DMCs and the sweeping of streets is the main assignment of the DMCs.
He said that when Sindh Solid Waste Management Authority (SSWMA) was created the city was generating around 4,000 tons of garbage but now it was generating around 16,000 tons of garbage daily. “The SSWMA did not snatch the cleanliness work from DMCs forcibly but it was given to them through a council resolution passed by DMCs,” he said. However, he said steps have been taken to further improve the performance of SSWMA.