Syed Mustafa Kamal

Syed Mustafa Kamal  is serving Senator in Senate of Pakistan and served as the nazim (mayor) of the city of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan from 2005 to 2010. Kamal has affiliations with the Pakistani liberalist party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). He was shortlisted for the World Mayor Prize in 2010.  He had also served as the IT Minister for the Sindh province from 2003 to 2005.

Early life

Mustafa Kamal's father and mother were both urdu speaking. Kamal was born on December 27, 1971 in Karachi where he studied until his Intermediate examinations after that he was given a job of telephone operator at 90 (The MQM secretariat) after some time he left for Malaysia. In Malaysia, he received as Associate Diploma in Business Executive Studies. He later received an MBA in Marketing from the University of Wales in United Kingdom.He was given a honorary PHD from MAJU(Mohammed Ali Jinnah University).

Former and Current Roles

Senator (first term) - Senate of The Islamic Republic of Pakistan 2012 - Present Short-listed for the Senate Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs

Visiting Faculty Member – Institute of Business Administration (IBA) 2011 - Present Faculties covered: Public-Private-Partnership, Strategy and Urban Policy & Planning

Senior Advisor to the Board of Directors for Habib University 2011 - Present Key areas: Strategy, Compliance, Governance Structure and Statutory Review

Chairman, Board of Trustees - Khidmat Khalq Foundation (KKF) 2010 - 2011 Chairman of the Board of Trustees for one of the largest humanitarian organizations in Pakistan. In charge of Special Projects, Governance, External stakeholder relationships and Strategy

Special Weekly Guest at SAMMA TV (top 5 national channel) 2010 – 2011 Topical discussions on contemporary social issues, pragmatic solutions that addressed underlying issues and interaction with mainly youth audience. The program amassed one of the highest ratings in Pakistan

Mayor of Karachi (Pakistan’s largest city with a population of 18 million) 2005 – 2010

 

 Political career

In 2003, Kamal became the Provincial Minister for Information Technology for the Sindh Province of Pakistan.  He held this position until 2005, when he was selected to become the second nazim of the city of Karachi, succeeding Naimatullah Khan.

He championed the role of IT in the transformation of the city’s fortunes, after learning from his experiences in the IT Ministry. He envisaged the city becoming an Asian super-hub borrowing from examples of Israel and its dominant regional economy.[2] At times, Kamal had been quoted as targeting development efforts on par with those of Dubai. Under his leadership, the city administration received acclaims and accolades, both internally and externally, as Kamal was feted by diplomats and internal urban policy-makers as a young and confident city leader. 

In 2010, the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan asked for the abolition of post of mayors in all cities across Pakistan and Kamal left to resume his duties as the member of the MQM Coordination Committee. Lala Fazal-ur-Rehman became the caretaker administrator of the CDGK, replacing Kamal. Syed Mustafa Kamal is elected to Senate of Pakistan from MQM his tenure is from Mar 2012 to Mar 2018. Sayed Mustafa Kamal is symbolized by MQM as an example of middle class leadership in a country where most of the parliamentary seats are awarded to the relatives of powerful politicians.

Syed Mustafa Kamal was awarded an honorary PhD degree in Politics by the Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi, at its convocation held on the 14th of April 2010 at a ceremony held at the open air PAF Museum in Karachi. On Senate Election held on 2nd of March, 2012, Mustafa Kamal has been elected as Senator.

 

 August 2007

Residents of Defence Housing Authority (DHA), a neighborhood of Karachi, wished to pay taxes to CDGK. They even praised City government's efforts to carry out relief operations in their area. 

The city government has started work on 3 multistoried parking plazas two in Saddar Town and one in Clifton area and these would be unique projects in Pakistan. 

Achievements 

Mustafa Kamal was praised by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for his efforts to make Karachi a megacity and to carry out relief operations.  

As a Mayor for a truly heterogeneous mega-city in a complex country, Mustafa discharged his full tenure in one of the most challenging environment. He led the administration from front, with an urban strategy focused on delivering a safe and reliable front line service, resource provision and allocation, healthcare (primary, secondary & tertiary services), transportation, regeneration, environmental awareness, community policing, e-services, safer neighborhood, water and sanitation management and addressed Labor/ Trade Union issues.

Throughout his tenure, he institutionalized transparency, a culture of accountability and scrutiny of all officials that significantly reduced corruption, pilferage and ill practices. By virtue of his position as the Mayor, Mustafa was the chairman of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB), one the largest public sector entities that supplied water to nearly 20 million inhabitants of the city and adjacent areas and in charge of sewerage management and waste disposal. During his penultimate year, Mustafa advocated for the resolution of untreated Solid Waste Management programme and solicited assistance from the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the Ministry of Ports & Shipping. A feasibility study was prepared to assess the environmental damage to both the marine life for the untreated sewage in the sea and the monetary costs to the infrastructure.

Mustafa favored a public-private-partnership approach for co-investment in large infrastructure projects i.e. Mass circular transportation, green busses, complete rehabilitation of crumbing water pipelines and construction of numerous bridges/fly-overs that contributed in alleviating chronic traffic jams. He was tasked with liaising with various federal ministries, business leaders, multinationals, foreign embassies (economic), prospective investors, regulators, multilaterals and was wholly supported by the Provincial Governor, the then President and the Prime Minister. His resilience to overcome challenges and a steadfast determination to deliver against his own high standards saw a complete transformation of the dilapidated infrastructure in less than 5 years.

Mustafa launched a grassroots citizen campaign “I own Karachi” that mobilized citizens to work together on cohesive community-led initiatives that encouraged ownership of the city. He sponsored municipal development projects in transport, solid waste and water supply that finished in record time and won international praises. As a Financial Manager, he instilled fiscal discipline in nearly $600 million budget allocation (that included special development package by the federal government) and was directly responsible for nearly 10,000 employees. Mustafa deployed a flat management structure whereby the grass-root employees were encouraged to share best practice that led to greater productivity of intellectual capital, blossomed competent managers and fostered a culture of responsibility that greatly reduced the red-tape and nepotism that plagued previous administrations. During his tenure, he was the chief architect of the following flagship projects:

1. Citizen Complaint and Information Management System Established the first Citizen Complaint Information System (CCIS) at the Mayor’s office whereby every citizen was encouraged to file complaints on civic issues on 24/7 basis. As the architect of CCIS, the key objective of the project entailed a centralized compliant filing system that connected various civic agencies so the remedial actions could be initiated by a single call/online reference. The follow up action by the local authorities was then monitored daily by the Mayor’s office and fostered a culture of accountability for inept progress. This initiative was the first of its kind in the history of Pakistan, as the citizens of Karachi were given a cohesive platform to launch their complaints and allowed to monitor progress. This project was subsequently enhanced and included the City Ambulance & Rescue Emergency Services (CARES). 

2. E Government The Mayor’s office sponsored numerous ‘e-connectivity’ programs for in-house migration to online system for the entire city administration and its sister concerns. This introduced efficiently and greatly reduced the paper waste whilst encouraged staff to utilize the intranet and embrace newer technologies. 

3. Healthcare As a proponent of ‘Healthcare for everyone’, Mustafa utilized his discretionary funds for nearly a dozen Government hospitals under the Mayor’s jurisdiction. He rehabilitated local medical facilities by building a state of the art Trauma Center that met international standards at Abbassi Shaheed Hospital and four new fully equipped Heart Care Centers. These institutions targeted the lowest income segment of the society and by investing in these facilities, the citizens were allowed to provision affordable healthcare. In addition, Mustafa sponsored the biggest dental hospital in Pakistan with 100 seats and deployed the latest equipment via public-private participation model (capital expenditure: Public, Operating expenditure: Private). 

4. Karachi Strategic Master Plan 2020 Since the independence of Pakistan in 1947, there has never been a Master Plan for Karachi. Mustafa commissioned the first Master Plan for Karachi that was completed in a record time. The plan incorporated a Development vision for Karachi 2020 that addressed major structural challenges, resettlement plan for squatter camps, slums and shanty towns, carried out extensive public consultations, engaged both federal and provincial government as responsible stakeholders, canvassed wider input from multilaterals and laid the roadmap for uplift of chronically capital starved public projects via private sector engagement. The Master Plan for Karachi embedded the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for Pakistan and followed the internationally accepted Best Practices.

5. Major Infrastructure Projects Signal-free Corridors Due to unprecedented population growth and consumer finance boom, the motor ownership in Karachi was nearly doubled in the last decade. To address congestion, as part of the follow up to the Master Plan, a number of mega projects were conceived and executed. Foremostly, the key project entailed building a signal-free artery between the airport and the city Centre/ industrial zone under Corridors I, II and III that resulted in alleviating significant bottlenecks along the main junctions by way of building over/under passes, reconfiguring the major traffic flows and installing traffic cameras that provided real time information. The projects adhered to international standard and followed the best practice for tender, shortlisting the appropriate contractors and embedding stringent Liquidated Damage (LD) penalties that incentivized the contractors for timely delivery. By instilling rigid Health & Safety standard, extensive Environmental Impact Studies (EIS), stakeholder consultations, the projects represented one of the best Public-Private-Partnership collaboration.[citation needed] 6. City Investment projects Overall, nearly 2496 mega projects were completed in Karachi under the Mayor’s leadership. These were all successfully implemented in record time. Example include 35 flyovers and underpasses; 316 major and supplementary 15,500 km of roads; 451 educational projects; First multi-story parking plaza in Pakistan; 194 water and sewerage projects; procurement of 75 CNG ‘Green’ buses, construction of 255 bus stops, 116 new pedestrian bridges, planting of 1.2 million trees and development of 356 parks, including Bah-e-Ibn-Qasim Park (Asia’s largest park). In addition, 110 infrastructure related projects were carried out in the outskirts of the city. All of these projects were implemented in record time. e.g. historically the time to build a single flyover in Pakistan took 8-11 years whereas during the Mayor’s administration, Signal Free Corridor I consisting of 3 flyover and 3 underpasses (16 km) was completed in 8 months; Signal Free Corridor II of 5 flyovers and 1 Underpass (25 km) completed in 1 year; and Signal free corridor III consisting of 5 flyovers and 1 underpass (28 km) completed in 1 year. This was due to 24 hour works, with City Government’s employees supervising 3 shifts to ensure the projects were completed with the least disruption to public life.

7. Command and Control Center Mustafa successfully launched the first of its kind (in Pakistan) Command and Control Center for Traffic Management & Security to control crime and other nefarious activities. It was manned round the clock with 140 surveillance and technical staff and covered Corridors I, II & III. This surveillance system, with its monitoring and surveillance technology, was inter alia instrumental in helping to capture those responsible for major bomb blasts in Karachi during 2008 - 2010.

8. Community Policing Mustafa was the architect of community policing project that saw employment for nearly 6000 wardens from the local community who aided the under-resourced Provincial Police Force that was the target of distrust, perceived inept at handling the emerging terrorist threats and woefully out of synch with the community needs. Mustafa won concessions on modeling the Community Wardens on UK’s Metropolitan Police Authority Community Police but extended a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ – modeled on NYPD initiative as championed by the then Mayor of NY. This initiative greatly reduced the city crime and incidents of reporting significantly increased due to the bridging of trust deficit.

IT Minister – Government of Sindh 2003 - 2005

Mustafa inherited a primitive IT Ministry of Sindh and transformed it into a key ministry with a focus on spurring growth in the sector and attracting investment into Sindh, one of Pakistan’s key commercial provinces. The entire province saw a huge influx of investment from overseas investors as a result of which new ideas and concepts were shared and implemented. His initiatives put Karachi on the map as the premier hub for IT industry and innovation, offered generous incentives for IT companies and local entrepreneurs, lobbied the Provincial Government on tax incentives that resulted in Karachi becoming the ‘silicon valley’ for BPO and Software Industry. Mustafa secured significant increase in the budget from the provincial government and aligned the service delivery via private sector participation. He often represented Pakistan at key local, federal, regional and global events and advanced the agenda of IT Knowledge based economic prosperity.

Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA), Government of Sindh 2002 - 2003

Elected with a heavy mandate to represent an economically deprived area of Karachi with a large youth population. As one of the youngest members of Sindh Assembly, Mustafa was frequently asked to participate in youth forums, colleges and universities to share insight into pending bills and legislations. LECTURE CIRCUIT

Frequent lecturer at international think tanks, universities, commerce chambers and international organizations such as the Brookings Institute, the Atlantic Council, the Council for Foreign Relation, the Center for American Progress, Rice University, Columbia University, Harvard University, South Asian Forum in Germany and the World Bank as well as local and international NGOs and civil society. In January 2011, attended and spoke at the Emerging Market Symposium held at Oxford University. Also, spoke at the USMEI (United States Muslim Engagement Initiative) held at LUMS, Pakistan. Participated in Mayor’s Panel and key Speaker at the conference titled “Changing Cities-Linking Global Knowledge to Local Action” in Hawaii that was jointly hosted by the East West Center and University of Pennsylvania. MEDIA & PUBLIC RELATIONS

Appeared in 1000s of interviews, panel discussions, press conferences on topics ranging from Sustainable Development, Public Policy, Private Investment, Socio-economics, Urban & Transportation Policy, Local Governance, Foreign Policy, Terrorism, Community Cohesion, Inter-faith Dialogue, etc.

EDUCATION

• Honorary PhD from Mohamed Ali Jinnah University, Karachi, Pakistan • MBA (Marketing), University of Wales, UK • ABE from Sunway College, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

AWARDS / RECOGNISITION

• Mustafa was among the finalists for the 2010 World Mayor prize • World Economic Forum has named Mustafa Kamal as one of the ‘youngest global leaders’ • Foreign Policy magazine hailed Mustafa Kamal as one of ‘Mayors of the Moment’, in consideration of his efforts to revitalize Karachi • Mustafa Kamal was praised by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for his efforts to make Karachi a well organized megacity and to carry out relief operations • Mustafa Kamal was awarded the first ever ‘Musawwar-e-Karachi’ for promoting literature, art and music in the city in 2009 • Mustafa Kamal was awarded a Gold Medal and a souvenir at the City Thinkers Awards Ceremony held by the Journalist Forum in 2011 for his outstanding services and contribution as a City Mayor • The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva has granted ISO 9001 certification to the City Government of Karachi for providing best services to its citizens

OTHER ACHEIVEMENTS• Signed the Sister City agreement between Houston (USA) and Karachi (Pakistan) • Worked with ‘Drug Free Pakistan’ to combat drug addiction and improve drug treatment options

RECENT PUBLICATIONS• Karachi’s Challenge- The Express Tribune (Local partner of the New York Times) http://epaper.tribune.com.pk/PUBLICATIONS/THEEXPRESSTRIBUNE/TET/2011/03/07/ArticleHtmls/Karachis-challenge-07032011007043.shtml?Mode=1

• Flaws in US perceptions of Pakistan’s ‘democracy’ http://tribune.com.pk/story/208760/flaws-in-us-perceptions-of-pakistans-democracy/