•Rs 6 billion of federally funded projects were stopped, citing PIDCL’s failure to obtain a certificate of objection from KMC
• Say any project in Karachi should be carried out through local agencies
Karachi: Karachi’s municipal leadership questioned the authority of the federal government by questioning the role of its Pakistan Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (PIDCL) in urban development projects and incorporated all such initiatives in Karachi should belong to municipal volunteers in the city.
The Sindh government-backed Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), led by the PPP, has stopped the federally funded Rs 6 billion project for Green Line Bus expansion and cited PIDCL’s failure to obtain a NO Objection Certificate (NOC) from the municipality before starting work again.
After the abolition of Pakistan’s factory, the federal government allocated the uplifted project to PIDCL, which was based on Company Law2017, different regions of the country.
The green line expansion work is Restart About two weeks ago, it was groundbreaking for more than nine years.
However, last week Mayor Murtaza Wahab stopped the construction of a digitized rhetoric and municipal park near Jamabu Market, citing “procedural violations.”
KMC officials said there was no “permanent” issue of NOC and that PIDCL was required to obtain new approval during the BRT expansion phase.
In a statement, the mayor also raised the need for infrastructure rehabilitation, which was completed more than three years ago during the first phase of the project.
He said Karachi’s citizens and KMC continued to suffer criticism and inconvenience for the first time due to negligence and mismanagement by “other agencies.”
However, the situation is much more complicated. Talk to it dawnKarachi Mayor Wahab has made a public announcement, saying he is eager to exclude PIDCL from the city’s infrastructure development efforts.
“Yes, absolutely.” He answered without hesitation when asked whether he wanted to “minus” the PIDCL of the Karachi development.
Mayor Wahab asserted: “Any project in Karachi – whether funded by the federal government – should be carried out through local agencies.”
“If a project is related to a town, then the respective town government should handle it. If it involves the entire city, we (KMC) will take responsibility. We are the people who are responsible for the people – they ask questions. Most of the questions.
The mayor said he received full support from the Sindh government in his careful reading of the policy.
He added that he even raised concerns about slow progress Red line BRT project, implemented by provincial governments.
“But there is a difference,” he explained. “I am part of the consulting body that oversees the execution of the Red Line BRT. I asked for an explanation and I had a clear understanding of what was going on. But when it comes to the Green Line project led by PIDCL, I am totally responsible for the heroes of the dark, facing public criticism.”
As the city government insists on the demands, the federal government is impressed with the mayor’s objection to the expansion of the Green Line BRT project. Although the work was suspended for several days, it did not formally respond to KMC’s concerns.
A source said adversely to the situation that PIDCL officials contacted the mayor immediately when they stopped working.
They decided on two sides to settle the problem last Friday.
“But no conference has been a hero since then,” the source said. They added: “The federal authorities now believe that the issue between the mayor of Karachi and the contractor. For NOC, PIDCL has been occupied by KMC in October 2017, thus making the current argument about NOC irrelevant.”
Posted at Dawn on September 22, 2025
