Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani has been posting pictures of various ‘restoration’ efforts he has preceded over in Pakistan’s biggest city. Only one problem. The public seems to think those ‘beautification’ efforts are straight out bad. People make mistakes every once in a while, but its actually worrying when these mistakes become a pattern.
Recently the Commissioner posted this picture on Twitter, and boy, did he got called out for it.
Restoration of Clifton Bridge pic.twitter.com/woCMz7YlYD
— Commissioner Karachi (@CommissionerKhi) January 29, 2020
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The Commissioner had approved a grant of Rs. 210 million back in 2018, which included 75 million for transportation arrangements, rehabilitation, and restoration. Given the tremendous amount in aid, it seems like the Commissioner is not utilizing the resources as efficiently as he should.
Pakistani Twitter was furious. Here’s what they have to say about it:
Before all this superficial fixes please fix roads,footpaths, pedestrian walkways and crossing,manhole covers,street lights,traffic signals so on so forth..
Also major part of Karachi lives on the other side of the bridge…— Tariq Irfan (@Tariq_Irfan) January 29, 2020
WTF! Is this city a meme? Why did they use fuckin IMPACT! and the obliteration of the baseline is giving me an migraine! Looks like iTs wRitTen LiKe tHiS https://t.co/5vErrfalG8
— //tollcrane/ (@tollcrane) January 29, 2020
https://twitter.com/MuazUmay/status/1222358478313922563
IT IS SO SIMPLE TO KEEP THINGS SIMPLE! And wtf is that pimple on the edge of the hoarding? Was this really necessary??? Are you Picasso? IS this your masterpiece? pic.twitter.com/QCvztWpCuN
— //tollcrane/ (@tollcrane) January 29, 2020
Karachi Defense or Clifton kay elawa bhi hay … plz pay more attention to the neglected areas … naziamabad, haydri, malir, liaqtabad … there are so many …
— Ayesha Syed🇵🇰🇸🇦 (@Guddloo) January 29, 2020
Streets of Kachra City aka Karachi. pic.twitter.com/lnD8jxSPCA
— undone (@just_kidding01) January 9, 2020
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However, we also can’t ignore the apparent support that his ‘beautification’ efforts got through social media, like the one from this lad:
I appreciate your efforts. People working to clean and beautify this city is a sight for sore eyes.
Your sign boards also remind us that somebody, who cares, is looking after this city.
Of course there is lot to be done, but this is a great start. I hope you'll keep it up. 👍
— Sheikh Chilli (@sheikh69chilli) January 29, 2020
How to Fix Karachi 101
While some people seem like they wanted an excuse to bash the system and the people in charge, some of them had really good points.
Beautification should be the last step towards the restoration process of Karachi. The first step is fixing the problem of trash, broken roads and confiscation of footpaths by different shops (even well-established offices).
Flashy signs (read: ugly signs) and painting zebra crossings is barely scratching the surface of real problems in this City of Lights.
Making Karachi pedestrian friendly! pic.twitter.com/1FRqVxldFc
— Commissioner Karachi (@CommissionerKhi) January 27, 2020
Which area do you reside in? Share pictures of the areas you want the Commissioner of Karachi to focus on for restoration and beautification!
There is one supposedly a pedestrian overhead bridge near teen talwar which is half complete. Staircase is missing on both sides of Clifton road. It been there for several years no one to take care to make it functional
No good could be done under the nose of most corrupted government of Pakistan (Sind). This is not my words way back Sind High Court labeled it,by saying CHURAIL BHI 40 GHAR CHOR DETI HY LEKAN INHON NY APNY LARKANA SHEHER KO NAHI BUKSHA.
All that has been said above is no exaggeration. We recently moved from Lahore & seeing karachi literally made us cry. It’s not that Lahore is next to Paris but still it’s not less if not more.
Wherever you go, it’s sand all around. Maybe just to give us a reminder that we are in a coastal city. So even if we are not able to go to the seaside we still can enjoy the sand.
And talking of seaside its more trash than water. But one thing I would like to appreciate is that after many years the sea water looked clean.