Kamal: Karachi deserves Rs800bn NFC share

Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has said that he entered politics as an IT minister 23 years ago and became

Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has said that he entered politics as an IT minister 23 years ago and became Karachi’s mayor 21 years ago, claiming that he played a role in ending the politics of violence in the city.

Speaking in Karachi, Kamal said he had spoken out against a system in which people could be killed simply for expressing disagreement. He said Karachi’s political and administrative problems could not be resolved without addressing the structural issues facing the city.

Kamal claimed that Karachi had not been properly counted in the population census. He said the city’s share under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award would amount to around Rs800 billion this year.

He argued that the existing system was damaging not only Karachi but the entire country. According to him, the city continues to face serious problems despite massive spending and a lack of effective administrative arrangements.

The federal minister said drinking water was not reaching many parts of Karachi, while the city’s sewage system was also unable to properly dispose of wastewater. He said there was no effective mechanism to transfer sufficient powers and resources to the grassroots level.

Kamal further claimed that despite around Rs22,000 billion being spent in the city, Karachi had reached the third position on a global list of cities with poor living conditions.

He stressed that the city needed stronger local governance, adequate resources and greater administrative powers at the grassroots level to address its longstanding problems.

Commenting on the political debate over administrative units, Kamal said that if the old Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) were still in its previous form, the responsibility for incidents such as the Gul Plaza tragedy would have been placed on the party.

He said he had advocated the creation of an administrative unit for better governance and claimed that the proposal was now receiving support from different quarters.

Kamal added that under the old political environment, such a proposal would have been dismissed as a foreign conspiracy. He maintained that Karachi’s governance problems required practical administrative reforms rather than political accusations.