While the Bahria Town management has inked agreements to build an Island City on an island located in Sindh province, former Karachi city nazim Naimatullah Khan came on television screens saying that the same island was to be developed in to Karachi Technology Island City (KTIC) according to an agreement signed in October 2002.
Addressing a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Wednesday, the former city nazim said that news about the development of Bundle Island had been going on for some time and the general public was informed that it was an ideal project for providing employment to the youth and economic development of the metropolitan in particular and Sindh in general.
Naimatullah said that he KTIC project was initiated by the presently defunct City District Government Karachi (CDGK), Army Welfare Trust (AWT), Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA), Access Capital and EDP services, adding that an MoU was signed on 7th October, 2002 between the parties and was the ceremony witnessed in Karachi by former federal minister for science and technology Prof Dr Attaur Rehman.
He further said that media reports of development of the island by Bahria Town and an American company was just a construction project which would only generate low level menial jobs and create housing/recreation facilities for the ultra-rich, whereas the IT City project would generate much greater number of high value jobs and economic activity on the pattern of Dubai Internet City and Banglore’s own ‘Silicon Valley’ in India.
Furthermore, Naimatullah said that a few years ago another government gave the island to Emaar, an Arabian construction company, without looking at the viability of the project. Thus the project had to be abandoned, he added. This new project was also similar to the previous projects which were initiated to grab prime land for personal purpose and a comparison of both projects could be made very easily, he said.
The project involved the conversion of an offshore island near Karachi into a high tech city where international technology companies could house their development/processing centres using huge technical human resource of Pakistan to market their products in the Middle East, Central Asia and Far Eastern countries. Over 1,200 acres just off the coast of DHA Golf Course have been allocated for the mentioned project.
KTIC would benefit the future generations by creating massive employment opportunities for engineers, IT specialists, business graduates, doctors and scientists while it would also generate mega economic activity, capable of establishing Pakistan as the technology hub of the entire region, Naimatullah opined.
“The federal and provincial governments are requested to please initiate KTIC project immediately and if someone is interested in the development including Bahria Town or Emaar, they should contact and join hands with Naimatullah Khan and his team to structure a more viable and beneficial project of Karachi Technology Island City. We also intend to file an application at the Sindh High Court to be a part of the said petition,” he demanded.
The chief executive officer, EDP Services and former chairman of Pakistan Software Houses Association (PASHA) Syed Hamza Matin was also present on the occasion.
