Karachi: Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi on Saturday appealed to Karachi to own the city, take pain for it and actively participate in the Federal Government’s initiative “Clean Karachi” and all other activities aimed at the uplift of the city.
He was speaking during a meeting with members of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry to mobilise the business community for successful and timely execution of this initiative taken on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
On this occasion, KCCI leadership announced it would donate Rs10 million (Dh232,561) to the fund created for cleaning Karachi. Besides KCCI leaders and members, chairman of the Karachi Port Trust, Real Admiral Jameel Akhtar and commissioner Karachi Iftikhar Shahlwani were also present on the occasion.
The first phase of Clean Karachi campaign was announced by the Minister last month in Islamabad. This campaign has been started in partnership with the City Government led by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s mayor, Waseem Akhtar and federal government institutions including the Frontier Works Organisation, National Logistics Cell, Karachi Port Trust and Port Qasim.
Syed Ali Haider Zaidi said that under the first phase, five main canals in the city were cleaned, which helped to maintain the outflow of recent rain and saved the city from big loss of human and property. Under the second phase, he said, there would be two-pronged strategy. Firstly, the people of Karachi would be appealed and mobilised to expose on social media every individual, group or business organisation contributing to the mess in the city. “If you see any individual throwing garbage on a road or witness any industry discharging untreated liquid waste into canals, rivers and sea, just share their name, pictures and other details on social media tagged as Name and Shame. We will send it to media houses to expose them,” he said.
The campaign will focus on collecting, lifting of garbage dumps to the designated landfill sites and its proper disposal. For better coordination with the business community regarding cleaning of the city, he announced the formation of a committee based on KCCI representatives and Members of National Assembly elected from Karachi. Sharing his experience of getting the main city canals cleaned before the recent monsoon rains, the Federal Minister revealed that even human remains were found.
He said that the primary concern of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government was to ensure better environment and cleanliness in this international city and economic hub of the country. Besides, more than 700MW power could be generated through the huge quantity of solid waste generated in the city daily. The government would also work on this option, he said.
He said that the main issues of the city were collecting, lifting and proper disposal of solid and liquid waste, water, infrastructure and transport. All these required collective and concrete efforts by the governments, private sector and the general public. For getting the required results, he added, the city needs a master plan.
