KARACHI: Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar on Saturday said that Karachi did not want political point scoring anymore but the city needs practical steps for resolution of its issues.
Talking to media outside K-Electric office after a meeting with the KE management, he said the situation this time was different because all the relevant stakeholders including federal, provincial governments and the cantonment boards are taking their responsibilities seriously.
Federal Minister Asad Umar said that at present all attention was focused on Karachi. He said that issue of power outages has been discussed in detail with the K-Electric management. The Minister said that the option of whether the powers to run the affairs of the utility supply company should remain with the owners or be taken over by the government would be discussed.
“We have been listening about the projects of K-IV and Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) for a long time but the problems have not been resolved because no one has total authority”, he said.
Asad Umar said that K-IV and KCR are the needs of the city. The sewerage system in the city was not functioning properly and encroachments had been established on the rain drains.
To a question, Federal Minister Asad Umar said that he was glad that at last Shahbaz Sharif’s heart ached for Karachi. He said Shahbaz Sharif instead of visiting the affected areas went to Zardari House and returned after doing political point scoring.
