KARACHI, 20 August — President Pervez Musharraf cheered up the people of Karachi yesterday by allocating a certain quota for the poor in new housing schemes and dismissing the administration’s plea for a rise in power tariff.
He ordered the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation to curtail expenses and improve efficiency in power generation and distribution system and also contain power thefts. The state utility that has been supplying electricity to Karachi’s 14 million people had sought a hike in tariff ranging between 12 to 15 percent. Its demand drew criticism from people and business houses. The president who presided over a meeting of senior officials rejected the plea and thought that power rates were already steep in Karachi and elsewhere in the country.
Later, inaugurating a low-cost housing scheme in the suburban Korangi area, Musharraf announced that in future at least 10 to 20 percent lands will be reserved for the poor and low-income groups in housing schemes to be undertaken by the Karachi Development Authority.
He noted that the people with low income were finding it difficult to make both ends meet and most of them were shelterless. The poor will be given plots of lands to build houses for which loans will be given on easy terms. They will also be given proprietary rights in unauthorized colonies where they presently live.
The president explained that the shanties had sprung up because the people could not afford to build houses for themselves.
