The Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani is likely to chair a meeting to be briefed over the progress on various development projects in Karachi on Thursday, November 30, at Governor House Karachi.
PM will be given a briefing on Lyari Expressway; Mass transit project; Karachi Circular Railway (KCR); M-9 road project; Orangi Town sheme; Scheme-33; Northern bypass and Hyderabad Package facing delay due to the shortage of Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) funds.
The Planning Commission of Pakistan on Tuesday delivered a briefing to a delegation of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) comprising of Dr Nadeem Ehsan, State Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Syed Tayyab Hussain, Parliamentarian from Hyderabad, on Karachi projects. The Pakistan People Party (PPP) senator Sughra Imam and Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr Nadeem ul Haq were also present in the meeting.
The MQM representatives have expressed their dissatisfaction and complained over the delay in the development projects for current fiscal 2011-12. The planning commission officials told the meeting that only Rs5.3 billion have been released to date for 75 development projects in Karachi. For these projects Rs22.8 billion were supposed to be released in current fiscal under PSDP. The total expected completion cost of these 75 projects in Karachi is Rs178.4 billion.
Deputy Chairman Planning Commission of Pakistan Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq, said that parliament needs to make amendments and introduce legislation into the civil service rules for better management. He said that government is facing difficulty to fund these projects. He said that development work on M-9 will start in May 2012, next year.
Dr Nadeem Ahsaan, State Minister for Overseas Pakistanis said that unfortunately; the city that produces 70 per cent of the total revenue is facing scarcity of funds for its own development projects which is unjustified. He said that as a public representative we have to answer the questions of the people related to the development of their areas.
He said that MQM has vacated 33 kilometer area resided by the Katchi Abadis; and now the matter is resting with the federal government to show political will to start work on the project. He said to allocate amount for the development projects is not enough; as the government needs to release funds for their timely completion. He said that PC-1 has been sent to the federal government to build federal hospital in Hyderabad.
The planning Commission briefed MQM delegation about on going progress on these projects just to have it finalised before a meeting to be held PM Gilani.
