Karachi to get Pakistan's largest one-stop passport and ID card centre

Karachi is to get what Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi called “Pakistan’s largest public facilitation centre”, a single building where citizens will be able to get passports, national identity cards, arms licences and other government documents under one roof.

Naqvi announced the plan on Tuesday during a visit to the interior ministry’s office on I.I. Chundrigar Road in Karachi, and ordered officials to prepare a master plan within 10 days, Dawn reported.

“The citizens will be able to access passport, CNIC, arms licence, various NOCs and other services under one roof,” Naqvi said. The centre will bring together counters from every department and organisation that falls under the interior ministry, and the planning, he said, would “account for all necessary requirements”.

The aim is that people will no longer need to go to a separate office for each document.

New fire engines for Islamabad

During the same visit, Naqvi went to Karachi Port to inspect 21 new rescue and firefighting vehicles that have arrived from China for Islamabad’s Rescue 1122 service and fire brigade. They include:

• 4 aerial fire trucks
• 6 fire towers
• 5 fire tenders

The vehicles can reach heights of up to 256 feet and will be stationed at six fire stations across Islamabad. They are expected to reach the capital within five days.

Naqvi called it “the biggest expansion since 2009”, noting that it was the first such delivery from China in 17 years, and thanked China for speeding up the delivery.

Mayor: DHA to get water “directly to people’s homes”

Separately, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab said the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) were now working with the Sindh government on road and water projects in the Defence Housing Authority (DHA).

The biggest is a water pipeline from Dumlottee to Masjid-i-Ayesha to supply DHA’s Phase 6 and Phase 7. The CBC will work with the provincial government and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation to bring water “directly to people’s homes”, the mayor said.

“Although the project timeline was 18 months, authorities expected it to be finished within 12 months, by next September or October, so DHA residents could receive 10 million gallons of water daily,” Wahab said. He described the CBC as “very forthcoming” in helping with the project.

Flyovers and underpasses

The FWO and the Sindh government are also working together on a series of projects to ease traffic:

• An underpass or flyover where Khayaban-i-Ittehad meets Khayaban-i-Hafiz
• A flyover where Khayaban-i-Shahbaz meets Khayaban-i-Hafiz, for which funding has been approved
• A flyover on Khaliquz Zaman Road from the Lily Bridge signal to the Bacha Party intersection, with its design due to be finalised next week
• An extension of Shahrah-i-Bhutto towards Ayesha Manzil, to connect with the expressway

“Finally, a process of engagement is starting where every institution is conversing and coming together,” Wahab said.

The mayor also said a 10-million-gallon elevated water line for Lyari was due to be completed by October 20.

Why it matters

Tuesday’s announcements touch three everyday concerns for Karachi’s residents: getting official documents, water supply and traffic. The test will be whether the deadlines, a master plan in 10 days, Lyari’s water line by October 20 and DHA’s pipeline within a year, are met.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn.