KARACHI - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Khurrum Sher Zaman on Thursday demanded that the Sindh government update the status of Karachi Safe City Project (KSC). In a statement issued on Thursday, Sher Zaman pointed out that the Sindh Apex Committee at its 23rd meeting back in December 2018 had approved the Karachi Safe City Project on a pilot basis.
“It’s been a year now since this decision was made to go ahead with KSC but nothing seems to be happening towards implementation on immediate basis. As a member of the Sindh Assembly, I believe that the chief minister of Sindh, who is also home minister, should update the Assembly at the next sitting or at least he or the home secretary or Safe City Authority should brief the relevant standing committee,” he said
For the Karachi Safe City Project to be successful, the PTI Karachi Region president wants to know from the Sindh Government if it has provided rapid response training to the emergency services such as police, traffic police, ambulance and medical aid.
“You can have the best high-tech equipment and install HD CCTV cameras throughout Karachi but it won’t make a difference if our emergency services do not respond rapidly to emergencies,” he said. Sher Zaman mentioned that the Lahore Safe City Project with 10,000 security cameras and a large patrol security force equipped with modern gadgets and training came at a cost of about Rs15 billion. However, Karachi being a bigger city than Lahore would need more resources; so, is the Sindh government willing to spend nearly double than Lahore’s to bring Karachi at par?
“Given the crime situation in Karachi and specifically street crimes, Karachi Safe City Project must be implemented as soon as possible but the people of Karachi just keep hearing general statements from Chief Minister and his team for the last one year that the project is being expedited.” Since it was the Supreme Court of Pakistan that directed the Sindh Government to implement Karachi Safe City Project, PTI Karachi Region President urged the apex court to ask for an update, if Sindh Government does not give one to the elected representatives of Sindh.
