Karachi needs Fumigation Drives immediately

An alarming situation which is imminent in Karachi is the forays of mosquito-borne diseases when monsoon would formally over in coming days. That demands immediate fumigation drive across the city where already a series of such diseases from chikungunya to dengue and malaria are stalking in hospitals. And, according to a news report in Daily DAWN dated August 22, 2017, 14000 cases of malaria have already been reported this year so far in Sindh including Karachi compared to 30,000 total of last year. The current status of city' wastes and garbage is an open secret.

The rise of numbers of patients suffering from viral diseases despite earlier attempts of fumigation this year is hard to digest. So far things that have been reported are; a city-wide fumigation drive was earlier kicked off by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation on the orders of the city Mayor Waseem Akhtar that ran from July 4 to 17, 2017, in which 50 municipal vehicles had to spray insecticides district-wise in all the union councils. However, citizens are witnessed they really saw any vehicle in operation in their areas fumigating sprays.

Earlier in the month of February this year, the Sindh Minister of Local Government Jam Khan Shoro directed the local government officials to begin campaign for "fumigation in the capital city including the adjoining Katachi Abadis, that had to cover all the localities of the city with focus of spray on garbage, dumps, nullahs, manholes, open plots and water ponds." However, in practice that campaign was directed at the Malir District where thousands of cases of chikungunya had been reported one and half month ago that even invited WHO intervention to control the disease.

Although, there is also a Dengue Prevention and Control Program active in city but general fumigation is not their responsibility. The Program is mainly limited to awareness campaigns and diagnosis while prevention and treatment is yet to be controlled. However, it is universally stressed that timely eradication of mosquitoes breeding grounds is the finest way which can limit and control the viral mosquitoes-borne diseases and fumigation across the metro is the answer to eradicate these grounds. So it is time for KMC and relative Cantonments to take action before situation would get worse.  

Also, if no efforts are made to spray fumigation timely, then -- apart from dengue, malaria and chikungunya --  the threat of the emergence of the Zika virus and yellow fever would also hover on city. God forbids. 

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Editorial, Infocus 

Road Rallies or Tree Plantation . Which is Sensible Way for Festivities in Karachi ?

"AB Khan" (not actual name), a driver of Edhi Ambulance service  expressing  his difficulties in driving on 14th August tells " I had a patient in noon in my vehicle for Liaqut National Hospital from Gulistan e Jauhar and heavy traffic jam was ahead but somehow I managed to drop him there in almost an hour drive. But I am worried many other ambulances drivers wouldn't manage to do so in time because of this traffic jamming today ".

The 14th of August is definitely a day to celebrate but these celebrations shouldn't disturb the city and citizens. Today a series of miscellaneous motor rallies to celebrate national Independence Day jumped into the Karachi roads that caused serious hustle and stopped traffic movements in Karachi East, Central, South and D.H.A. Ahsan Ajaz Magoon also shares some of his photos and a video clip on a Whats'up Group in which he complained that a "serious traffic-stuck was observed at Khyaban e Ittehad, DHA at 12 o clock that took more than an hour to go through the Khyaban".

Definitely, other people would also have same experiences despite being part of these rallies. However, it was observed that most of these rallies were badly disorganised, scattered everywhere and troublesome for general public commutation. There was no specific route mentioned for them and they move on all the main commuting arteries of Karachi like University Road, Shahra e Faisal, Shahra e Pakistan, Abdullah Haroon Road, Clifton Road, Korangi-DHA Road and Khyaban e Ittehad. Traffic Police did all what they could to stream traffic movement but mostly unable to unlock the traffic gridlock wherever and whenever occurred due to uncontrolled numbers of diverse and numerous Independence rallies.        

Now the question is are these motor rallies and "Azadi Carvans" are sensible way to celebrate events and festivals in already a dense city like Karachi? More importantly does the civic administration are able to control these rallies after giving permission them? It is assumed many political, politico-social, politico-ethnic and socio-religious rallies do not seek these official permission, otherwise public commutation in city wouldn't be in dismal state on 14th of August.   

The other options to celebrate festivals, success and events are much wiser. Why not the hierarchy of these "Azadi Carvans" opt for Cleaning Drive or Plantation Drive in the city for celebrations. That will benefit the city and inhabitants more rather discomforting them. I personally know many Tree Plantation Drives were held only in District East Karachi on 14th August 2017. One was held in Safari Park jointly organised by an NGO Kumak and Mera Karachi, where around hundred trees of Almond, Gua and others were planted.

                        

Another Tree Plantation Drive was organised by Council of Participatory Development near NIPA, in which trees of Neem and Morianga were planted by school children.

These are suitable, sensible and civilized options to celebrate things in Karachi, rather holding motor rallies to flex your muscles for a noble cause. That would harm the city more in terms of traffic gridlock, commutation  hurdles and other transportation crisis for general public including patients, passengers and     senior citizens. Hope civic administration would take think now seriously about it.     

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Divisive local government history of Karachi

It is difficult to sum up any metropolitan' historical overview in few lines, but on the occasion of the 70th Independence Day of Pakistan it is important to analyze and debate on the dismal reasons of past that never allowed the society and state altogether to attain stability and prosperity.

Despite the fact that Karachi provides 70 percent revenue to the national exchequer and shelters more than 10% population from all over the country irrespective of cast and creed, it's share is meager on national benefits and policy-makings. In fact lots of socio-economic gains could have been attained from the magnitude and potential of the city by investing sincerity, dynamism and devolution of authorities, yet the fact is both provincial and federal governments kept the powers centralised, therefore as a result people here have always been deprived from their rights, civil institutions remained at halt from functioning and the local resources always exploited by the politico-feudal class of Pakistan.

After 70 year, Karachi is unable to shape up any real local government. There are reasons; at one hand the local government elections were hardly and irregularly held, while on the other hand the various local government systems that have been promulgated via ordinances, constitutional bills and amendments were politically motivated which have always kept the city more in a state of depriving rather to develop it. 

On 14th August 1947, Karachi inherited the Karachi City Municipal Act 1933 introduced by the British Raj. Through this Act the Municipality of Karachi had been given the status of Karachi Municipal Corporation with a Mayor, Deputy Mayor and 57 Councilors. Besides, the city had been made the capital of Sindh province in British India and later on after Independence was chosen as the capital of Pakistan. The history of local government elections inside Pakistan  begins from the regime of Gen Ayub Khan when (after abolition of 1956 Constitution) he held non-party local government "Basic Democracy" elections via an Ordinance in 1959. With 80,000 elected Basic Democrats he introduced a 5-tier system, however it was aimed more towards strengthening his Presidential form of government and concentration of civil authorities, rather empowering the grass-root class. As Municipal Corporation of  Karachi was demoted to divisional level and administratively subordinate to the West Pakistan Department of Basic Democracies and Local Government. Besides, the status of Karachi as the national capital was taken away under his regime and Islamabad was made the new capital of Pakistan.

After the Separation of East Pakistan, new legislations were being devised for the Constitution of 1973, when the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto  introduced the Sindh People's Ordinance of 1972 in which Karachi Municipal Corporation was officially restored and through an amendment in 1976 it was upgraded as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). The administrative area of Karachi was also established as Karachi Division, which was subdivided into five districts; Karachi Central, Karachi East, Karachi West, Karachi South and Malir. But he didn't hold local bodies elections during his 8-year reign and the Corporation was run by civil bureaucrats. Also, the city witnessed serious ethnic marginalisation in his tenure because of introduction of quota system and language controversy.

General Zia ul Haq, after coming into power reviewed the system of local government in his martial law regime and vowed to establish this system on strong footings by launching the Sindh local Government Ordinance 1979 that lessened a bit the role of Mayor in civil functions compared to 1972 Sindh Peoples' Ordinance. Also, the local bodies elections he held were non-party basis which saw Abdul Sattar Afghani as Mayor twice in 1979 and 1983, and Farooq Sattar in 1988. These elections helped the city to, at least, evolve some shape and form of  local governance on modern footings.

However, after the end of Farooq Sattar' tenure as Mayor in 1992 the successive federal governments of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif didn't hold local bodies elections and Karachi was kept being run under the Administrators system, largely civil bureaucrats.  

 

General Pervaiz Musharraf after taking the reins of the country through martial law in 1999, tried to establish his authority by focusing on grass root governance and prioritising urban political management. Therefore he passed the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001, which aimed at a new devolution of financial resources and responsibilities back to Karachi city from spatial planning and development facilitations to municipal services. It also merged the five districts of Karachi into a Karachi District that had a City District Government of Karachi overseeing the administration of the area, with 18 Towns and 178 Union Councils, each governed by elected officers. Under this system, fresh local government elections were held and Karachi saw better civil amelioration under the Nizamat of Naimatullah Khan and large-scale development and civic progress under Mustafa Kamal respectively.  

After the departure of Gen Musharraf, the Asif Zardari-led Pakistan Peoples Party' government repealed the 2001 Ordinance and passed the Sindh People's Local Government Ordinance (SPLGO 2012) in Sindh Assembly, restoring back the Metropolitan Corporation and five District Municipal Corporations in Karachi.  Further on, the Sindh Assembly approved the Sindh Local Government Act (SPLGA 2013) that adds another District Korangi and two District Councils of rural Karachi in the city administrative fold. According to Sindh Government spokesman, the SPLGA 2013 mirrors the Sindh Peoples Ordinance 1972, but in practice it isn't. As the 1972 Ordinance empowered the Mayor and Metropolitan to have oversight in many areas like city planning, development and etc but under the SPLGA 2013 not only the above functions have been curtailed, also some important departments within the KMC such as KWSB, KDA, KBCA, Solid Waste Management and etc are taken away from KMC to merge with Sindh Provincial Government.

However, under the 2014 orders of Supreme Court "to restore Local Government System", the Sindh government conducted local government elections in 2015 with Waseem Akhtar elected as Karachi Mayor with depleting power and authority. That's why in the new set-up under SPLGA 2013, Karachi is the victim of ongoing administrative tussle between Mayor and Sindh Government. The civil and municipal infrastructure of the city has been ruined, and Karachi is in sever grip of multifaceted problems like shortage and poisonous of water, outdated sewerage and drainage system, poor air and hygiene quality, inadequate transportation and massive traffic jamming, pollution and depleting urban forestry, power and housing shortages, ruination of coastal biodiversity and etc.    

In democracy, the level of local government comes before provincial and federal governments. The basic services for citizens are provided by local governments and that's also a opportunity to the locals from all walk of life including poor people, minorities and women to contribute in the development of their communities and influence the decision-making processes that are directly relevant to their lives. Ultimately, that strengthens local institutions for better governance. But as far as Karachi is concerned, unfortunately that neither happened in the past nor seems likely in near future.

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Celebrate with Flags, yet Planting a Tree is more Patriotic & Far-reaching

The 14th August is surely a day to celebrate. At government level a range of diverse national programs, fireworks and shows are staged, while public at individual level love to invest their love in purchasing a series of independence day items.

According to last year news report published in DAWN on August 13, 2016, a sum of Rs 5 billion was spent on these goods including flags, stickers and etc.

On an online shopping website yayvo.com, 16 diverse independence day products are queued for selling, from Pakistan flags, flag pins, balloons, greeting cards, caps, goggles, arm bands, T-shirts to face painting supplies. However, the most important product is obviously the national flag which is hoisted in government offices and public places. While individuals buy and hoist these national flags at their houses making the numbers of flags buying in millions each year.   

In a word the zeal of nationalism is at its peak, because it is the best time to  show your love to your country. But keeping in mind the challenges ahead it is also a time to care about your country too specially about climate and environment. How about if alongside hoisting flags at home if each family plants also a single tree in or somewhere near their house on this independence day. Just guess how many millions of tree we can add on our land and environment and ultimately how much amount of pollution can be averted from the national climate sphere.

There is no harm to do that as a part of Independence Day celebrations. People have every right to buy and hoist as many flags on independence day but if they just spare the money for only one flag and spend it to purchase a single tree to be planted in their city, it will not play down their patriotism and loyalty to their soil. In fact that will speak their sincerity to their family, land, inhabitants,  wildlife, environment and socio-civics of the country.  

Also, a Pakistan flag costs nearly a Rs 100 in these days while a common plant either of Neem, gulmohar or any other indigenous category has much lesser price. Even, if anyone doesn't have space to plant a tree he/she can buy a small flower pot where an indoor plant can be raised, which is also highly beneficial.

The government should also adopt that theme as a national campaign on each 14th August. However, individuals are best judge of themselves. They should realize what is more beneficial and far-reaching to them, numbers of flags or a single tree ? And, what express their devotion and loyalty to their land more, the Green flag or green plantation ?     

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