Karachi: The Pakistan Business Forum (PBF) have appointed District President’s for Karachi in order to devolve the working and mission of the PBF for a close liaising with traders. In this regard Ms. Beena Amin has been appointed for South Distrcit, Syed Athar Ali Shah has been appointed for East district and Nasir Rind Baloch has been appointed for Malir District according the the notification.
It may note here in 2018, a World Bank report titled “Transforming Karachi into a Livable and Competitive Megacity: A City Diagnostic and Transformation Strategy” estimated that Karachi needs $9-10 billion financing over a period of 10 years to meet its infrastructure and service delivery requirements in urban transport, water supply and sanitation and municipal solid waste management.
However, current infrastructure spending is well below these requirements as the availability of public financing for Karachi’s needs is limited, which substantially increases its opportunity cost with the rapid growth in its population every year.
In the last couple of decades, successive governments in the centre and in the province have announced various investment packages for improving infrastructure and public service delivery.
Some work has been done over time and roads rehabilitated, bridges built, storm drains and sewerage cleaned and so on. Yet these ‘improvements’ haven’t brought any major change in the life of the city residents because only a fraction of the promised money has come through and all projects were implemented in silos without need assessment and planning.
