The Centre cannot give Karachi Transformation Plan's funds to Sindh government as it does not trust it, said Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz.
"We did not want to give the funds directly to the Sindh government, because honestly, we don't trust them," he told a news conference on Monday.
"The provincial government had taken billions of rupees for development, however, it has been exposed during the recent rains," added Faraz.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Centre, Sindh government, and the armed forces are part of the Rs1,100bn plan to ensure its implementation and completion on time, he said.
Clearing up the 'confusion', Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said that the federal government will allocate Rs611bilion in the Rs1.1tln Karachi Transformation Plan.
In a statement, the planning minister said that the city's development projects will take place under the Karachi Transformation Plan.
Umar's clarification came on the heels of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's statement on Sunday during a rally in which he said that Sindh government was contributing Rs800bn for the Karachi package whereas the Centre was only allocating Rs300bn.
Providing a breakdown of the development plan, Umar said that the greater Karachi water supply — KIV scheme — will cost around Rs46billion whereas Rs300bn will be allocated for the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) project.
He said that Rs131 billion have been allocated for the railway freight corridor while the government will also allocate Rs5billion for the Green line project.
Referring to people displaced by the clearing of encroachments on nullahs, the minister said that the government had allocated Rs254 bn to provide them compensation.
The cost of all these projects will amount to an estimated Rs736billion and the federal government will release Rs611billion from it, he said.
"The Sindh government has expressed its wish to take over the KCR project," he said, adding that constitutionally, railways was the jurisdiction of the Centre.
The minister noted that the Supreme Court had also directed the federal government to start work on some projects and that it was the Centre's responsibility to kickstart the KCR project.
"The federal government is considering working with the Sindh government for the development of Karachi," Umar said, adding that the reason for announcing the package was to provide relief to the people of Karachi, not indulge in "point-scoring".
"The reason for this justification was to keep certain misunderstandings [regarding the plan] at bay," he added.
