Syed Mustafa Kamal Biography

Syed Mustafa Kamal (Urdu: سید مصطفى کمال ) served as the nazim (mayor) of the city of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan^[1] from 2005 to 2010. Kamal has affiliations with the Pakistani liberalist party Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). He was featured as one of the “mayors of the moment” (along with Berlin’s Klaus Wowereit, and Chongqing’s Wang Hongju) in the Foreign Policy magazine in 2008 and 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

Kamal was born on December 27, 1971 in Karachi where he studied until his Intermediate examinations and left for Malaysia.^[1] In Malaysia, he received as Associate Diploma in Business Executive Studies.^[3] He later received an MBA in Marketing from the Aberystwyth University in United Kingdom.^[1]

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.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 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.^[4]

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 and one of its kind 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.