CONSTRUCTION OF PARK MEANS FACING GUNFIRE IN KARACHI

Nazim Karachi Syed Mustafa Kamal has said that developing a park is indeed an easy job but it becomes very tough in Karachi where vacating occupied land and developing into park means fighting a war with the all powerful land mafia and exchange of gunfire.He expressed these views while addressing the inaugural ceremony of the reconstructed Jheel Park in PECHS on Thursday after the Governor of Sindh Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan inaugurated the park.The City Nazim said that this is not happened anywhere in the world except for Karachi where the occupiers open fire when they are asked to vacate the government land.He said that the heads of the state had in past allotted plots to their loved ones at the land of Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim in Clifton while a total of 16 to 17 acres of old Jheel Park was also occupied by the land mafia. The Haq parast government has now recovered this precious land from the occupation of land mafia and opened it for public and the credit for this should go to Governor Sindh Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad Khan.
Nazim Karachi said that out of total 130 acres of Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim 70 acres was occupied and this was not possible for poor men to take up such an expensive land forcefully and these were only he near and dear ones of the past rulers who had done this.
“In such a situation this would have been very easy for Governor Sindh to occupy a 10 acre of the park land himself and a 5 acre for the City Nazim and then to put all the blame on the land mafia who had already occupied the place but the Haq Parast government believed in the resolution of citizens problems and provision of all basic facilities to them,” the City Nazim said and added that they received many phone calls from the top notch country officials to stop it when they started work at Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim. “but we did not listened to them and eventually succeeded in restoring public land and constructing a huge beautiful park where the people enjoy now.
He said that there was no empty piece of land in the densely populated PECHS especially near Tariq Road and a major part of the only old park in the area was occupied by the land mafia and the place was made centre of criminal activities and no go area for the people. When the city government bulldozers get their they started firing and we were threatened on telephone but the residents of this area would testify that we have not left even an inch of the government land in the hands of the mafia and now the 30 year old Jheel Park has once again available for public.

Second Level Of Nagan Flyover Opened in Karachi

The second level of the Nagan Chowrangi flyover was opened for vehicular traffic late on Saturday night.

City Nazim Syed Mustafa Kamal performed the opening ceremony.

Seemingly undeterred by the withholding of the promised funds by the federal and provincial governments, the city nazim announced that the city government would curtail its non-development expenditures to finance and complete the ongoing development projects in the city.

Talking to newsmen after the inauguration, he said that the Nagan Chowrangi and Gulshan-i-Iqbal flyovers were actually federally-funded projects but owing to the withholding of funds, the city government spent Rs170 million from its own resources to complete the project.

He said that so far the city government spent Rs400 million on various development projects under bridge financing.

Defending his decision to continue the work on various projects without getting the promised funds, the nazim said that since the cost of raw material was increasing with each passing day, there was a possibility that if the city government kept waiting for the promised grants, the overall costs of the projects would increase manifold.

“Therefore, despite limited resources, we do not want to further delay the ongoing projects,” the nazim said.

Mr Kamal maintained that the city government was facing a shortfall of around Rs3 billion but was trying to meet the same by curtailing various non-development expenditures including fuel, medical etc.

However, he urged the federal and provincial authorities to release the withheld funds to the city government so that it could complete the ongoing development projects in the city.

The nazim said that the signal-free corridor II comprising five flyovers – three on Rashid Minhas Road, one at Sohrab Goth and the Nagan Chowrangi flyover – would be formally inaugurated on Independence Day.

He said that that the Nagan Chowrangi flyover was an important part of the signal-free corridor II, which linked Sharea Faisal to Surjani Town and was being completed at an estimated cost of Rs650 million.

Level one of the Nagan Chowrangi flyover was recently opened for vehicular traffic.

Currently, the city government is constructing one more loop of the flyover, which will cover Anda Mor and is scheduled to be completed by August 14.

Mr Kamal congratulated the people of Karachi on the opening of the Nagan Chowrangi flyover and observed that due to effective arrangements, traffic was not disturbed during the construction work of the flyover.

He said that the city government would work on the beautification of the entire area after the completion of work on adjacent roads and a storm-water drain.