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I wish new administrator will try to achieve standards which Mustafa Kamal has set and will make Karachi better place without making things politicize.

You gotta admit. Karachi has been transformed over the past six years. I remember Karachi in 2001 when I left for my hiatus abroad. It used to be a stinking nightmare. Buses, rickshaws and cars honked with frustration in long queues of traffic jams. Pollution hung like a pall in the sky with barely any vegetation in the city. Roads were broken and potholed in all areas. Curbs and footpaths were non-existent or left in ruins. Sewerage water overflowed in a majority of the neighbourhoods. Water was in short supply and tankers used to ply everywhere. Just thinking of those frustrating times is enough to give one a headache.

Contrast that image to now. Traffic flows freely in most areas thanks to signal-free corridors. A lot of major arteries of the city have been re-carpeted… something that had not been carried out in the city for decades. Most of the roads and streets look defined now, with properly constructed curbsides and footpaths. The sewerage system of the city has been fixed in a majority of areas and you dont find overflowing gutters everywhere anymore. A lot of trees have been planted in the city and amenity plots that used to be garbage dumps have been converted into parks. The credit for this vision and for the transformation of this city from an urban disaster to a strident megapolis can largely go to one man: Mustafa Kamal.

A park in Gulshan that once used to be a wasteland

And this was no small work. Karachi had been a neglected city for decades. I remember road carpeting once being carried out when I was a small kid during the days of Zia-ul-Haq, but the subsequent democratic governments of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto made sure that they did not invest a single penny into the largest city of the country. It was shamefully neglected for a long period of time. Nevertheless, people still came to this city from all parts of Pakistan to make money (being the economic factory that Karachi is). By the time the Musharraf government came to power the city’s infrastructure was crumbling apart under the tremendous strain of its population.

An earlier Nazim (was it Naimatullah?) was elected under the local governments system who did start some repair work for the city, however for the majority of the work that has been done for the city the credit solidly rests on Mustafa Kamal. In the effort to transform this city into a habitable and more contemporary metropolis, Mustafa has shown great vision which most others would have been lacking. And he seems to have his working ethic in the right place. Actually doing something makes you more deserving of credit than merely talking about it and he has really done something for this city.

If I start counting all the improvements that have been made over the past years of his government, I could use up a whole page. However merely a drive down some older localities gives you an idea of the tremendous improvement that can be observed in the city’s built environment. The PECHS to NIPA area once used to be an eyesore. Now the University Road is en route to becoming a beautiful signal free corridor with trees planted on both sides. Land values in the area are also becoming much better. Clifton Kothari Parade used to be Funland, and drug-addict-land surrounded by a barren desert. Now it proudly boasts one of the most historic achievements of Mustafa Kamal – the Bin Qasim park, which will be an iconic park for Karachi for generations.  Sewerage lines of the city, laid down in the British times have been completely re-constructed. I. I. Chundrigar road and countless other roads in the city have been repaired. A traffic video monitoring system is now in place. In short, so much work has been carried out in a few years that the city is on its way to making amends for all the neglect that came its way in the previous years.

What is the point behind this post? Very simple. We in this country are quick to point fingers and take away credit. Appreciation, however, is a little hard to come by. A lot of people commenting on this post will also be wagging their heads in the negative, putting forward one conspiracy theory over the other. But the facts speak for themselves. The city is now on the path to progress and the change over the last few years has been significant. If countries abroad can be more forward than us in naming Mustafa Kamal as an exemplary mayor and nominating Karachi as an exemplary city, why should we shy away from some due appreciation? Bravo Mr. Nazim!

[Credit : Urbanpk]

From DAWN:
“An award winning American magazine Foreign Policy, has chosen Nazim Karachi, Syed Mustafa Kamal as second among the three best mayors in the world for the year 2008.

The magazine has included the names of Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit and Wang Hongju, Mayor of Chongqing as the other mayors of the moment, said a CDGK statement issued on Sunday.
The magazine said no city globalises on its own, but with shrewd investments and smart urban planning, a mayor can help turn a regional player into a global powerhouse. About Mustafa Kamal the magazine wrote that the mayor of Karachi is an unlikely poster child for innovative urban planning.
It said the 36-year-old Mustafa Kamal governs a city that’s more often in the news for religious violence than cosmopolitan ways. But the hard-charging Kamal is looking to change all that. He’s courting foreign investment, encouraging international ties, and boosting the city’s tourism.
According to the US magazine Kamal is not shy about his goals: He has said he wants to turn Karachi into the next Dubai. His Green Karachi project aims to plant thousands of trees in the city. Kamal is not letting anything stand in the way of his grand plans. He has threatened to arrest anyone who tries to cut down the new saplings, it added.
In a statement, the Nazim said that in the past there was no concept of ownership in Karachi. He said his administration carried out development works on a large scale, but added that lot of work still remains to be done.”

Source : http://www.dawn.com/2008/11/10/top11.htm

On Monday, Daily Times reported he was getting “special treatment” from the State Department because they viewed him as a potential future leader of the country. The report in Monday’s The News was also on similar lines, it quoted CNN’s State Department Correspondent Zain Virje as saying that the mayor of Karachi was a “guest with a mission”. Daily Times also published the full transcript of the interview Kamal gave to Virje, and even though Kamal played down speculation about the purpose of his visit, telling Dawn‘s Anwer Iqbal that he had come to the United States to urge American businessmen to invest in his city, speculation is still rife.

According to the Dawn report, some believe that Kamal might have been sent on a mission to “strengthen President Pervez Musharraf” and “build bridges with Pakistan’s future” (unquote Zain Virje). Other reports, Dawn adds, suggest “the US was trying to put together an alliance of like-minded parties to back the next political set-up in Pakistan should the PML-N quit the government”. Interesting theories all these, not sure I can say I sense any ulterior motives too, but these are interesting nevertheless. Here’s what Mustafa Kamal and the State department had to say about the matter (quoting from Dawn):

“It is not my domain,” said Mr Kamal when asked if he was here for talks aimed at strengthening President Musharraf. “I was not here to discuss this sort of things. My role remains confined to Karachi. I had no political talks.”

A State Department spokesman, when asked to comment on Mr Kamal’s meetings with officials at the department, said: “If you are looking for an ulterior motive, there’s none.”

The mayor’s 40-minute meeting with Assistant Secretary Richard Boucher was his only at the State, said the official.

“Mr Boucher talks to a lot of people,” said the official. “They had met in Pakistan a month ago when Mr Boucher visited Karachi. We got word that he was in town, wanted to come by, say hello to Mr Boucher and present an album of his trip to Karachi.”

Mr Kamal also denied having a hidden agenda. “All I can say is that Karachi is a very important city and has a very strategic role to play in Pakistan,” said the mayor. “People are realising Karachi’s importance. We have developed that city and now we are seeking investment.”

He said that the US State Department had helped arrange his meetings with the American business community and officials in various cities. He has already met the mayors of Chicago and Houston and the deputy mayor in Washington. In New York, he has a series of meetings with potential investors and is also meeting the board of directors of the world’s largest stock exchange.

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