KARACHI: Chairman Businessmen Group & Former President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) Siraj Kassam Teli and President KCCI Junaid Esmail Makda, while referring to the remarks by Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi who pledged to clean up Karachi from trash in two weeks’ time, extended full support and cooperation to the federal government in its quest to improve the pathetic condition of Karachi in terms of cleanliness, infrastructure, water scarcity, sewerage & sanitation issues and frequent power failures.
In a joint statement, Chairman BMG and President KCCI stated that the business & industrial community of Karachi Chamber stands side by side with the federal government and will join hands with them in all the initiatives focusing on improving the standard of living in Karachi.
They said that due to sheer negligence since last more than a decade, the miseries and hardships for Karachiites have intensified and the same was witnessed during the first monsoon rainfall in Karachi where the citizens suffered badly due to prolong power failures, inundated streets, poor sewerage and sanitation conditions in almost all the areas of the city. “We are ready to assist and help out the federal government in whatever way we can in the larger interest of Karachi which contributes more than 70 percent revenue to the national exchequer and 95 percent to Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) despite so many odds”, they added.
Chairman BMG Siraj Kassam Teli pointed out that Karachi city had been largely ignored in the past but it was really heartening to see that the present federal government was exhibiting the intent and seriousness towards improving the standard of living in Karachi and paying special attention to the issues of this huge city, stretched over an area of more than 3,500 square kilometers with a huge population of more than 22 million.
“It was a matter of grave concern and really worrisome that Karachi city, which is even bigger than around 80 countries around the world in terms of area and population, has never received the kind of attention that it actually deserves. A mere number of development projects were currently underway but the work on all these projects was going on at snail’s pace. The overall infrastructure of the city was in a terrible shape mainly due to lack of maintenance work on road networks and sewerage lines etc.”, Siraj Teli noted while urging the federal government to initiate more development projects under its supervision.
Chairman BMG categorically said, “The Karachi Chamber was not a politically-affiliated organization and we always support all those politicians who raise voice for the rights of Karachi. We will support every single initiative taken by the Federal Government which is in favor of Karachi and all the Karachiites will certainly come forward to play their due role in the cleanliness campaign by the federal government.”
President KCCI Junaid Esmail Makda stated that the cleanliness condition in Karachi have become unbearable which was seen by everyone as soon as the first rainfall of monsoon season struck the city. “We warmly welcome federal government’s intent to clean Karachi and fully support them”, he added.
He stressed that it was the high time that this city gets special attention from the federal government otherwise the innocent citizens will continue to lose their lives whenever torrential rains or any other natural calamity occurs.
Junaid Makda was fairly optimistic that keeping in view the federal government’s, particularly Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resolve to improve the infrastructure of Karachi, the overall situation was likely to improve but the development process must not remain limited to completion of just a few projects only, it must continue throughout the tenure of PTI government which, if done, would certainly provide a huge sigh of relief to the perturbed Karachiites who are battling for survival every single day on the streets of Karachi.
