Sindh CM Murad blames city planners for 'ruining' Karachi

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Saturday blamed urban planners for “ruining” Karachi, adding that he saw the metropolis vastly expand and deteriorate firsthand while growing up in it. In July 2025, a steering committee tasked with developing the Greater Karachi Regional Plan 2047 was informed that the new master plan of the country’s commercial capital would be ready within two years. Addressing an event of the Sindh Master Plan Authority (SMPA) in Karachi, CM Murad said: “Making a master plan from scratch is easy. But considering Karachi’s deteriorated condition, it is a challenge for consultants, master planners and urban developers to fix those [conditions], and also for the executive bodies to implement the plan.

” CM Murad noted that SMPA , established under the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) in 1968, was formed to develop urban master plans for Sindh’s cities with recommendations from stakeholders. The chief minister said 14 master plans had been completed, but plans for Karachi and Hyderabad were under development. However, a post by the CM House quoted him as saying that master plans for 17 cities were complete, with work on 14 in final stages. Recalling that he grew up in Karachi and saw the metropolis’ expansion firsthand, Murad said, “I do not think any other city in the world has expanded as quickly as Karachi has, nor has any city in the world been ruined by planners as quickly as Karachi has. ” The chief minister, whose PPP has ruled Sindh for about 15 years, stressed that Karachi needed to be improved. He contended that from the 1960s to the 1980s, it was a “very well-planned” city which attracted foreign visitors. Recalling an incident during the severe rains of 2020, Murad lamented that while travelling along a new dual-carriageway road from…