Chairman of Bahria Town, Malik Riaz Hussain, has clarified that Bahria management will not take over Karachi’s Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim “till all stakeholders agree.”
In a Twitter message on Friday, Malik Riaz said “We will NOT take over this park till all stakeholders including Mayor Karachi agree to hand it over to us,”
Here’s the list of responsibilities of #BahriaTown according to official agreement. #Karachi #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/X4avXrWeln
— Malik Riaz Hussain (@MalikRiaz_) March 31, 2017
On Thursday i.e. March, 30, 2016, the Sindh government had handed over Karachi’s biggest Park, Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim, to Bahria Town for 10 years.
The move has drawn anger from Sindh’s main opposition party Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
The Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also opposed the move which the provincial authorities claimed would save funds and encourage private organisations to carry out social work and public service.
We will NOT take over this park till all stakeholders including Mayor Karachi agree to hand it over to us, rest assured. #Karachi #Pakistan pic.twitter.com/4O4rUeDjFx
— Malik Riaz Hussain (@MalikRiaz_) March 31, 2017
Malik Riaz speaking to local news channel ‘Samaa News’, said that Bahria Town was planning to spend millions on restoration and maintenance of the park without any commercial activity or interest, but now his organization has no interest in the project.
“Only for the sake of Allah’s blessing, we wanted to restore this park, but I have now refused to own it due to politicking,” the real estate tycoon said.
Read: Sindh govt hands over Bagh-e-Ibne Qasim park to Bahria Town management
“This is really unfortunate to see so much propaganda against our humble venture for Karachi. Our aim is to covert Bagh Ibn Qasim into a state of the art recreational family park… We have no commercial interests,” he earlier clarified on Twitter.