Karachi residents demand disclosure of construction plans beside Nehr-i-Khayam

Residents and environmental campaigners protested on Sunday at a construction site beside Karachi's Nehr-i-Khayam waterway, calling for work to stop and project documents to be made public, Dawn reported.

Participants included neighbourhood groups from Clifton and Karachi's southern district. They opposed commercial development along the channel and said narrowing it could impair drainage. Some residents also raised concerns about traffic and noise from a proposed food street. These were protesters' concerns, rather than findings of an independent assessment.

The demonstrators sought approved designs, land boundaries, environmental assessments and regulatory decisions. They also requested disclosure of the budget, funding, contractors, payments and actual expenditure for a project reportedly announced at 500 million Pakistani rupees.

Their demands included protecting the channel's capacity to carry stormwater and the surrounding public space, treating sewage before its discharge into the sea, and holding meaningful consultations before further work.

A Karachi Metropolitan Corporation spokesperson told Dawn that the local government department was carrying out the project and that the corporation and the city's mayor were not involved.