Article 140-A is key to resolving Karachi’s issues, says Sattar

The Article 140-A of the constitution of Pakistan is the key to resolving the problems of Karachi.

Estranged leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and the party’s former convener Dr Farooq Sattar said this on Saturday as he spoke at a session, titled ‘On the Future of Karachi’s Development’, on the second day of the 7th Annual International Karachi Conference at the Institute of Business Administration’s city campus.

The Article 140-A needs to be interpreted by the Supreme Court, he said and added that elected representatives of Karachi have already approached the apex court for that. “This petition can pave the way for finally having a self-contained, autonomous and effective system of local government,” he remarked. “The Article 140-A is our rescuer.”

The said article makes it incumbent upon the provinces to establish a local government system and devolve political, administrative and financial responsibility and authority to the elected representatives of the local governments.

Dr Sattar lamented that it was because of garbage, Karachi came into banner headlines of The New York Times. “It happened after quite a long time that Karachi was discussed in The New York Times because of garbage, dengue and Congo [fever],” he said.

Commenting on Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem’s bid of invoking the Article 149 (4) to help resolve the issues of Karachi, the former MQM-P convener said if that had happened, it would have brought the Centre and the province at loggerheads. “That would have also brought the Sindhi speaking people of rural Sindh or Sindhi speaking Karachiites versus the majority of Urdu speaking people in Karachi,” he said and explained how it would have also turned into the rural and urban Sindh divide.

“The Article 149 (4) is not the correct recipe, 140-A is still our saviour,” he said.

Solid waste management, sanitation, water, housing, town planning and master plan are purely local subjects, Dr Sattar remarked. “They are not in any way provincial subjects,” he said, adding that the provincial government should not encroach upon local subjects.

He explained that if such local subjects were properly devolved to the local governments, the people could directly hold the Karachi mayor responsible for the city’s issues.

Karachi is the only and the biggest cosmopolitan city of Pakistan and people who live in different parts of the country and speak different languages – all of them have their representation in Karachi, Dr Sattar commented. “What it [the city] need is the unity in diversity.”

In the same session, journalist Mahim Maher spoke on Karachi’s infamous project K-IV. She informed the session that the K-IV project comprised a canal that was supposed to bring water to Karachi for the next 20 to 25 years. “This project is at least 17 years old,” she said, adding that work started on it in 2002 and it was an ongoing story.

The second day of the conference kicked off with President of the Karachi Conference Foundation (KCF) Dr Asma Ibrahim, reiterating the KCF’s commitment to promote awareness about Karachi’s development and heritage.

A session titled ‘The Future of Karachi’s Heritage’ featured presentations by Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Land Archives Project Director Fareed Ahmed, conservationist Dr Kaleemullah Lashari and Dr Abdul Rehman. The audience was informed about the Archives of Karachi present in the Library of Congress in Washington DC, which is one of the largest libraries in the world.

Panellists Danish Zuby from NGO Shehri, Prof Dr Anila Naeem from NED University and session chair Arif Hasan engaged with the speakers on their papers about Karachi’s archives, heritage and history.

The highlight of the session was the closing address by Hasan who said, “Heritage is more than buildings.” He said when the state did not provide facilities like public transport, low income housing, water supply, etc., Karachiites provided it for themselves. The solutions which Karachiites have per force provided for themselves, like kachi abadis and encroachments, cannot simply be swept away and the planners need to regard the organic and haphazard existence of Karachi with “love and affection”, to modify the existing city, not to demolish it to make way for half-baked new ideas or luxury settlements for the wealthy, he added.

Hasan asserted that the city planning has to be about ordinary people. “I do not believe in beautification projects which are of no use to the public.”