Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

SC seeks report on trees cutting in Lahore

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

By our correspondent

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday sought a detailed report till December 21 on cutting of trees due to extension of the Canal View Road Project in Lahore from the provincial environment secretary and the director general.

A three-member SC bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Tariq Parvez, was hearing a suo moto case initiated against the cutting of trees.

Nawaz Manik, deputy director of the Punjab Environment Protection Department, Israr Khan, project director of the Lahore Canal Road, and Khadim Hussain Qaiser, Additional Advocate General Punjab, appeared in the court in connection with the notice.

Israr Khan presented a report of Nespak about the impact on the environment due to the cutting of trees. However, the civic representatives negated the report and contended that the report was about a previous project and had nothing to do with the current project.

Israr Khan told the court that the Canal View project would affect 1,844 trees, however, 4,304 new trees would be planted. He said fruit trees would be saved. Giving details of the project, he said it was a 14 km project that starts from Thokar Niaz Baig and ends at Dharampura underpass.

Imrana Tiwana, an architect and environmentalist, told the court that the project would cause a severe damage and irreparable loss to the hundreds of years old archaeological heritage of the city.

She said this heritage is considered to be one of the rich heritages of world. She said the project of expanding the road has been designed to benefit a selected few not more than eight per cent and majority of the remaining citizens is being neglected. She said there are 700 buses in Lahore and the city has been declared the most polluted city of the country but government is not paying any heed towards it. She said in the US and Seoul, traffic issues are solved without disturbing ecosystem.

The chief justice then observed that the government in London did not go for expansion of its roads merely to preserve its heritage.

“How such a project of huge cost is in favour of the country in the current economic situation,” the chief justice said. “See Karachi, how a young Nazim has excellently worked,” the chief justice said, adding the ‘authorities’ of Lahore should go to Karachi to see his excellent work. Lamenting the strategy of cutting trees for expansion of roads, Imrana Tiwana said instead of making transport system efficient, trees are being sacrificed to expand the roads. The court adjourned the hearing for December 21.

Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

My Comments: Having seen the very impressive development of Karachi myself over the last 5 years I have to agree with the Chief Justice.

Re: Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

Mubarik hu:chai:

Re: Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

but in selected area.............. is not it ?

Re: Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

thread topic should have addressed the core news, anyway well done to kamal.

on the real topic, SC should ban cutting the trees in name of development, Canal road is already over developed, it does not need more extension to it, instead of this Govt should look for alternative ways, mass transit systems to reduce the traffic on the roads and build alternative road links, A Canal ferry service will be more environment friendly will allow north to south commuter link in the city.

smarter not wider roads are needed in Lahore now.

u mean selected areas in karachi ?

I hate this kind of dirty politics played by CJ who should be neutral and should not give such comments. I wonder he has already forgot his blockade by same mayor on 12 may 2007 when a number of people who came to greet him were killed by mqm. He seemed to be as corrupt and stupid as any judge of Pakistan. Naeem Bukhari was right in pointing his daughter's fraud in results to get in to medical college. Shame on him.

CJ is not appreciating Mustafa Kamal or his party for the role they played on 12th May. He is appreciating the execution of work undertaken by city government under his leadership.

I am not an MQM supporter, but I do appreciate Mustafa Kamal for his development work. I appreciate him for saving thousands of Lives in Karachi by effectively controlling the security situation in the city for past two years. Does that make me stupid and corrupt and a terrorist MQM supporter as well?

Why can't we support good work irrespective of the party?

well some people cant ..they will never understand.

its simple like or dislike deeds and not people.

Re: Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

what is CJ smoking these days? ..

taqat ka nasha :)

Mindstorm

This is why I don’t like this ethinic party and what its so called good work. Read as follows:

DAWN.COM | National | JI calls for talks with militants

**Our Sukkur correspondent adds: JI provincial chief Asadullah Bhutto has accused Muttahida Qaumi Movement workers of snatching hides of sacrificial animals from Jamaat activists on gunpoint and injuring former MPA Younus Barai and other party workers in Karachi. **

**Addressing a press conference in the press club here on Wednesday, Mr Bhutto said that the JI would observe protest day throughout Sindh on Friday. **

**He said that the MQM had claimed to have collected record number of hides in Karachi, but the record was made on gunpoint. **

Only smoking ?

Ask more

Don’t mind it. They are in habit. They are ding it for more than two decades with Eadhi and others.

Re: Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

Maybe CJ doesn't want another attack on his life?

Re: Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

oh so you means good job like this?

Re: Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

The CJ was talking about that Karachi mayor was not cutting down trees. He meant development work can be done w/o harming the environment. I don't why people confusing that with CJ endorsing mqm?

Re: Karachi Nazim doing excellent job: CJ

There is nothing wrong with appreciating good work done by someone. As long as it benefits Pakistan and it's people, it's all good.

Isn't it even better that the terrorist party is doing something positive after messing up karachi so badly????

This video should be seen by CJ and decide how mayor of Karachi is better than other goons? As regard development of Karachi read as follows:

Our honorable CJ should read this then offer comments. Though the report is not current one but still applicable.

Karachi’s problems | Economic Review | Find Articles at BNET

Reverting to the subject again and again is no problem. The problems that afflict Karachi are devastating. The chances of Pakistan economy receiving more foreign or domestic investments remain slim. The city is, for the most part, dysfunctional. That it somehow carries on is a tribute to the peoples’ fortitude and their capacity to take almost any inconvenience or indignity in their stride. They have no option too.

Karachi is primarily a port city. This port is the lifeline of Pakistan economy; it is likely to remain the only one for commercial purposes for many more years to come, if not forever. The primacy thus goes to the port installations, their efficiency and the conditions in and around the port. It is a highly topical subject what with the oil slick and other problems of the pollution of the sea around that has gone on unchecked ever since Pakistan came into being. Long before the oil spill from Tasman Spirit, the water around the port for some 20-25 miles around was among the most polluted waters in the world. Doubtless the oil spill still requires more clean ups immediately that have to be on a war footing. But that is neither simple or single operation.

Karachi has two other functions: it is a gateway to the watery economic zone in the Arabian Sea that belongs to Pakistan. The second aspect is that it is a biggest centre of fishing industries where a very large number of people earn their living by catching fish, processing and selling them. And of course fish food exports, now suspended, one fears for some years, will have to resume one day after the rest of the world is confident that Pakistani food exports are safe to consume. It is our problem number one to clean up 32 to 40 thousand tonnes of oil that has actually been spilled into the sea. The effects are likely to remain for at least half a dozen years or more. We can be sure that no seafood exports can resume on any scale before these six or seven years during which the sea will have to be thoroughly cleaned up. The cleaning up is for a purpose: it is to ensure that sea life goes on uncontaminated and stays healthy.

Along the way the sea itself needs to be cleaned up. One is not suggesting dredging up or any fancy method of cleaning. It is to ensure untreated effluents from various industries, particularly from chemical and leather industries, should not be allowed to fall into the sea. Which problem dovetails into the even larger issue of what to do with Karachi’s sewerage water and hard waste that go on adding to the city’s filth? The municipality, and now local government, had the function of safely and healthily disposing of both the sewerage and the hard waste. Almost all modern cities have landfills and recycling industries based on them. Doubtless, a primitive recycling system has already grown up in Karachi and Heavens be thanked for it. But it is small and chaotic. The state has to monitor and suggest a benign combination of pvivate and public sectors to tackle this whole problem.

As it is, Karachi is among the filthiest towns of the world. Your go to any middle class and upper class colony, let alone the lower class localities, piles upon piles of hard waste are accumulating everywhere. The local government’s transport for the purpose is either woefully inadequate or it is being misused on a large scale. On is told that both statements are true. People in the country go on all the time expending on the theme of Islamic civilisation and culture. What seems to stand out in Karachi about this civilisation is its fifth and accumulated mountains of hard waste. Not only simple mountains. These are being spread over all available space on or near the roads from where different kinds of waste material are picked up, such as bottles, tins, papers or plastics. These items in demand are carried either on a transport or on shoulders to the private sector shops that buy and sell these items. It is a recycling industry already but it is too primitive. It contributes littering of the whole area around areas where hard wastes are dumped and not lifted regularly. All parts of the city have become dirtier than they had ever been before. It is a scandal that no government worth the name should tolerate.

There is a lot of pilaff being spewed out constantly about corruption. The question is does anyone take notice of it. There is the case of Karachi’s spillage of the oil. Aren’t some officials guilty of complacence, negligence and tardiness? For full 15 to 20 days virtually little was done. There is some turf warfare also going on. All of it may not fall under the category of corruption. But it is certainly its sister; inefficiency.

**Then there is the telltale case of the roads. Several new roads were built during the course of the last year and even in this calendar year. This year’s somewhat heavier rains have destroyed most roads. It is an all too familiar phenomenon. People have been talking of it for long. Roads built six months ago become virtually non-existent after one respectable shower. Everybody has talked about it but no one has done anything about **

When a road is built a certain amount of paper work is done. The roads have categories. They are supposed to have a foundation and some other stages and then the final one of carpeting. Now that the carpets on most roads have disappeared, has any authority-central, provincial or local-investigated whether any particular road was ever built according to the standards written in the documents pertaining to that road? After all, the contract-giving authority does impose specifications that the contractor has to achieve. Now that the carpets are not there, why could it not be studied as to which roads were not built according to the specifications and those who charged money for a road of different specification should now be hauled up. Many heads should roll. Here are cases that can be proven by expert testimony. We can have engineers from other cities or preferably foreigners to pinpoint the areas where obvious corruption had taken place. The bribe giver and the brine take should, as a result of the evidence available on the road, should be punished through whatever legal process the higher judicial authorities can recommend.

There is the whole vast field of health-related matter of water and sewerage works that need to be investigated and modernised. Modernisation does not mean import of fancy machinery. It means using local brains to tackle local problems, with cost effective technology to be developed locally. There are organisations that do R and D, not to mention institutions like PCSIR or the bodies that try to develop other technologies. Pakistan has in fact exported water filtration plants to different countries 25 years ago. Why can’t Pakistanis filter their own water more efficiently and lay out mains that do not leak so frequently. The same treatment that is required for the roads should be applied with suitable changes to whatever works have been build by Water and Sewerage Board. The point is there should be actual accountability of those who are responsible for works all that are essential to the health and well being of the people.

One has not talked of education, recreation facilities and so forth. We have local governments now in place; we have provincial governments in place; one has also not talked of law and order without which no economic capital can attract investments.

And here is the glimpse of current working of this mayor:

http://rightnreal.com/failure-of-mustafa-kamal-devastating-rain-effects-in-karachi/comment-page-1/

It’s easy to bask in glory by putting fear of God in the people and by erecting flyovers throughout city which tend to either collapse or have large holes in the middle of them after couple of months of their grand inauguration. Its easy to deliver speeches and to praise the Altaf Hussain Bhai like parrot and its easy to enjoy on the people’s money.

But it’s quite another venture when the test comes in the real manner. When the time came for the real management of Karachi, Mustafa Kamal the blue-eyed boy of MQM failed like hell. His all tall claims, showy efficiency and arrogance got wiped out with the torrent rains, which crippled the Karachi and still couple of days after rain, Karachi suffers. So much for the City District Government and its Nazim-e-Ala.

The total collapse of the city infrastructure in the immediate aftermath of the downpour speaks volumes about the capabilities and abilities of this Nazim who is so quick to send accumulated Bhatta to Pir of London. Had he spent a fraction of that Bhatta on Karachi drainage system, we would have been living in much better situation.

kya patay ki baat kahi hay. magar CJ ko samjhna chahiay ke, zindagi aor maot allah ke haath main hay, altaf ke haath main nahin hay. He should stop playing this dirty poltics and don't degrade the office of CJ. It is not the job of CJ to praise or hate anyone on the basis of working. Let people of Karachi be the judge of mayor's working.

CJ should avoid cheap popularity by issuing such stupid messages.

[note]Just to keep the record straight, the fraud regarding results being changed to get the daughter admitted to a medical college involved PCO CJ Dogar, and was exposed by Ansaar Abassi and not Naeem Bukhari![/note]