KARACHI: Federal Minister for National Health Services Regulation and Coordination Syed Mustafa Kamal has emphasised that local governments should be strengthened and said that the world had developed by empowering local governments. He said that Karachi could pull Pakistan out of the swamp and added that Pakistan had two operational seaports, with 50 percent of the country’s exports generated from the city. He expressed this while addressing the business community during his visit to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Monday. Kamal said that water tankers were available for 6,000 rupees, but there was no water in household taps, and that influential people had their tanker businesses running. He added that no one was willing to accept that the city needed to be fixed and said that the time had come to fix the city, noting that if Karachi ran, Pakistan would run. He added that his party was the only one that had removed its own leader and said that the leader would make speeches at night, leaving them embarrassed in the morning. He said that after 2010, the city had no mayor for five years. He said that a draft of a constitutional amendment had been prepared, that 8,700 billion rupees had been given to the provinces, and that Sindh had received more than 20,000 billion rupees in the last 17 years. He said that provincial autonomy did not mean making the chief minister autonomous and added that while money was coming from the federation to the provinces, it was not being transferred to districts. He suggested that instead of giving funds to provinces, the federation should send money directly to districts through the federal divisible pool. He also said that for garbage collection, the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board had been created. He further said that in the current environment, even if a hospital was built in every neighborhood, it would still not be enough. He emphasised that work on public health was necessary and said that from the prime minister down to the lowest level, everyone should focus on prevention. President KCCI Rehan Hanif said that due to the transporters’ strike, exports had been halted for a week. He said that he hoped the minister would speak to the higher authorities to resolve the issue. He added that the city’s census had not been conducted properly and said that the polio program had been organized according to that census. He said that the city had a large number of informal settlements. Hanif asked whether the WHO had provided funding for hospitals in Karachi and whether the government planned to make any laws requiring doctors to prescribe medicines without mentioning their names but only the formula. He said that the prices of medicines were high in the country and asked what was being done to control them. He said that the city had a water problem and that if clean water was available, half of the diseases would be eradicated. He said that when he was young, the Ke-4 project had begun, but now that he was getting old, there was still no progress on it. He asked whether the minister, members of the cabinet, and members of the National Assembly discussed the issues of Karachi and said that he wanted to know what steps were being taken to resolve the problems faced by the people of Karachi. Anjum Nisar, Vice Chairman Businessman Group (BMG) and others also spoke. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025