President highlights criticality of Karachi in country's economy

KARACHI: President Dr Arif Alvi has said that development of Karachi was guarantee for prosperity of the country and steps taken by government to address the issues faced by Karachi were commendable.

"Country's development and prosperity are directly linked with the development of Karachi and plight of its residents could no longer be ignored."

The President stated this while chairing a high level meeting at Sindh Governor House on Saturday which discussed Karachi Transformation Plan to resolve major infrastructure issues of the metropolitan city.

The meeting attended by Governor Sindh Imran Ismail, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar and MNA Aftab Siddiqi also discussed the increasing number of cases of COVID-19 due to new wave of pandemic.

The President particularly emphasised on the importance of water conservation in Karachi. He regretted that no such plan to preserve water had been formulated in past.

The Governor Sindh updated the President about Karachi's problems relating to availability of clean drinking water, sewerage, solid waste management and transport.

He also apprised of the measures being adopted by the federal government to redress the same.

Federal Minister Asad Umar informed that there were clear signs of a fourth wave of COVID-19 starting in the country, primarily due to poor compliance to SOPs and arrival of the Delta (Indian) variant of the virus.

The President stressed that the people should get themselves vaccinated at the earliest. He also advised the masses to follow instructions of NCOC to help check the spread of the virus. Dr Arif Alvi maintained that the proactive decision-making had helped Pakistan avoid the kind of situation being witnessed in other countries.