KARACHI: Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) officials on Tuesday brought this in the knowledge of the Supreme Court-appointed judicial commission on water quality and drainage in Sindh that 80 per cent work had been completed to clear storm water drains in the city.
Retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim, who heads the one-member commission, asked the KMC officials at the outset of the hearing why he had seen no progress since last week when he visited various storm water drains of Karachi and directed authorities to de-silt them.
The KMC officials responded that 80pc work had been completed with regards to that. The commission iterated that with the drains, the illegal encroachments also have to be removed.
Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar told the commission that authorities are unable to lift the garbage from some points, to which Justice Muslim responded that Akhtar should specify such stormwater drains so a solution could be found regarding them.
The Karachi mayor assured the commission that work on clearing the remaining drains would start as soon as funds are released by the Sindh government.
Akhtar said the buildings that have been constructed after encroachment are an impediment to the cleaning of the nullahs, adding that his office has so far not received the funds requested from the Sindh government to clear the drains.
Earlier, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar had expressed his displeasure over the heaps of garbage that have become a regular feature of Karachi’s cityscape and ordered the authorities to ensure that all trash is removed within the week.
“I want a neat and clean Karachi within a week,” CJ Nisar had ordered on March 17 while hearing a citizen’s rights case concerning Sindh’s water and sewerage problems in the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry,” he had said.
