KARACHI          -           Karachi Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab on Tuesday chaired a high level meeting on revenue and budget of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation for the next financial year.

A seven-member committee was constituted at the meeting which will reconstitute the positions of KMC officers and employees and submit them to Administrator Karachi for approval. Municipal Commissioner Syed Afzal Zaidi and all departmental heads attended the meeting, said a statement. Addressing the meeting, the Administrator Karachi directed to meet revenue targets by the end of the financial year. “We should all be concerned if revenue targets do not improve,” he added. He said that there was a need to bridge the gap between KMC and Sindh government.

“I want the officers themselves to improve their performance so that I can tell on June 30 what steps KMC has taken to achieve the revenue targets,” he said.

Barrister Murtaza Wahab directed his sub-ordinates to bring innovation in Karachi Zoo and Safari Park, improve things and start projects with public-private partnership where needed. He said that when children’s ward at Karachi Institute of Kidney Diseases, Abbasi Shaheed

Hospital can run in collaboration with private institutions, why can’t other medical institutes and hospitals. He said that what has happened in the past should be forgotten and all the departments must perform their duties and responsibilities in an efficient manner and show exemplary performance. He said that no one could take the legal right of KMC, adding that even the Chief Minister Sindh, when making a decision, sees which institution has the legal right in any matter. He said that projects were being worked on under public-private partnership all over the world.

“In Karachi too, there is a need to launch projects under public-private partnership and innovate in the recreational facilities that are already available,” Wahab said. “I want to brand KMC so that the Government of Sindh can show its interest in the KMC projects and help us to complete them,” he said.

Giving a briefing on this occasion, the Director Katchi Abadi said that till 2015-16, the number of plots in Katchi Abadi was 114,120 out of which 63,552 have been leased while 50,568 plots are yet to be regularised. If these plots are regularised, KMC could get Rs1.24 billion.

The Administrator directed to make summary of lease so that this matter can be taken forward. The meeting also offered Fateha for Inspector Muhammad Ali, who was shot dead by terrorists in Anti-Encroachment Land Office on Sunday.