Centre agrees to hand over KCR project to Sindh govt, PA told

• Sharjeel says govt wants to complete key transport project under CPEC
• Peoples Bus Service to be launched in every district
• MMA member says 134 citizens killed during muggings in Karachi in 2023

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly was on Friday informed that the federal government had in principal agreed to hand over the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project to the provincial government and efforts were on to execute the project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Speaking on the floor of the house, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon, however, said the project had not so far been formally handed over to the provincial government, adding that the project was still under the control of the Pakistan Railway.

“We will immediately start work on the project after its formal handover to us,” he said.

The highly ambitious plan to restart the 44-km KCR remains a pipe dream as the work on the first two underpasses in Gulshan-i-Iqbal was stopped after the federal government decided to bring the project under CPEC.

Initiated in 1964, the old KCR route started from Drigh Road and ended in downtown Karachi. After suffering losses for years, it ceased operations in 1999.

While responding to a supplementary question by Rana Ansar, the parliamentary party leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan, the information minister said that the KCR was the backbone of the city’s traffic and the provincial government was taking all-out measures to resolve the traffic issue in the city.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had decided to revive the KCR on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis with heavy subsidies to the private partner by the government. However, the change in the regime led to change in financial theme of the project as the incumbent Pakistan Democratic Alliance-led government abandoned the public-private partnership (PPP) mode and decided to seek Chinese investment for the project under CPEC.

Mr Memon told the lawmakers that the provincial government had decided to launch the Peoples Bus Service (PBS) in every district of the province.

He said the provincial government was giving subsidy in the fares of PBS as the normal fare was Rs50 in Karachi while Rs100 was charged on the routes exceeding 30km.

To another supplementary question, he conceded that the land of transport departments at different places in the province had been illegally occupied.

He said the transport department had informed him cattle pens had been established on 50 acres of the department’s land in Karachi by Leader of the Opposition Haleem Adil Sheikh.

In reply to a question by Grand Democratic Alliance’s (GDA) Nand Kumar Goklani, he said he was not aware if department’s land in Sanghar was occupied. “I assure you that I will get the occupied land vacated,” he told the GDA lawmaker.

Call attention notices

In reply to a call attention notice given by Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal’s lone MPA Syed Abdur Rasheed, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla said that the law and order situation was much better than the past days.

He said that an operation was also being conducted in the riverine area of Sindh and on the Punjab border, adding that a high-level meeting had been held to curb crimes and drug menace.

Speaking on his call attention, the MMA lawmaker said that over 130 citizens were killed in 2023 so far by armed robbers. He alleged that instead of maintaining the law and order, police were busy in ‘managing’ the local government polls for the ruling party.

The MMA member said that 134 people had been killed during muggings in Karachi in 2023 and over 72,000 vehicles were snatched or stolen. He said the robbers killed 31 citizens in January, 34 in February, 32 in March and 28 in April, adding that nine people fell victim to street crime in the first 11 days of May.

“What the steps are taken by the Sindh government and law enforcement agencies to protect the life and property of the citizens?” he asked.

The opposition member said that on one hand people were being killed by robbers while on the other, the entire police department was ‘engaged’ in stealing the mandate of Karachi. “Sindh police is playing the role of political workers,” he alleged.

In response to a call attention notice by GDA’s Golkani, the parliamentary minister said that a massive crackdown had been launched against hoarders to control the prices of essential commodities.

The GDA MPA said that there was a massive increase in the prices of flour, sugar, chicken and other daily use commodities in the province. He asked the minister to inform the house about the reasons of recent price hike.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Assembly unanimously passed The Sindh Physiotherapy Council 2022

Later, Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the house till Monday.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2023