Under this now-defunct system, Karachi had a local government system, with a mayor empowered to make decisions in regards to city-planning and administration of local services.

It was headed by the mayor and was formed under the presidential rule of Pervez Musharraf in 2001.

CDGK became a major authority in the city and was granted unprecedented power.

The CDGK was a three-tier system, with each tier having its respective nazims and naib nazims (mayors and deputy mayors), and it oversaw a major increase in development.

In 2012, the Sindh government decided that the development projects first undertaken by the CDGK would be carried out by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

[1] On October 12, 1999, Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law and set up the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB) which was tasked with designing a new local government system in Pakistan.

According to SLGO in 2001:[2] It is expedient to devolve political power and decentralize administrative and financial authority to accountable local governments for good governance, effective delivery of services, and transparent decision-making through institutionalized participation of the people at the grassroots level.For the first time in the history of Pakistan, a district government decentralized authority to the local level.

City District Government Karachi (CDGK) consisted of a three-tiered setup.

The previous five-district setups were merged into the single district of Karachi.

In addition to four male and two female members elected directly, there were two male and two female representatives of the labor, a minority member, a Union Nazim and his deputy known as Union Naib Nazim.

Less commonly, a Union Council may be part of a City District.

Karachi had a total of 18 Towns, and 178 Union councils.

# 8 Shafiq Mill Colony Gulshan Town U.C.

(Pakistan Employees Co-operative Housing Society)

# 11 Allama Iqbal Colony Malir Town U.C.

# 7 Ghazi Brohi Goth New Karachi Town U.C.

# 13 Shah Nawaz Bhutto Colony North Nazimabad Town U.C.

# 10 Buffer Zone II Orangi Town U.C.

# 7 Al-Falah Society SITE Town (Sindh Industrial & Trading Estate) U.C.

# 9 Islamia Colony The mayor controlled a large number of municipal powers and portfolios and his responsibilities included, but were not limited to:[5] ...intra-city or intra-town or Taluka network of water supply, sanitation, conservancy, removal and disposal of sullage, refuse, garbage, sewer or stormwater, solid or liquid waste, drainage, public toilets, expressways bridges, flyovers, public roads, streets, footpaths, traffic signals, pavements and lighting thereof, public parks, gardens, arboriculture, landscaping, billboards, hoardings, firefighting, land use control, zoning, master planning, classification, declassification or reclassification of commercial or residential areas, markets, housing, urban or rural infrastructure, environment and construction, maintenance or development thereof and enforcement of any law or rule relating theretoThe Mayor held one-third of the land control of Karachi.

The rest was under the control of other bodies including the Government of Sindh—the federal government that had strong institutional presence independent of the district government—the CAA, railways, Cantonments), steel mills and the Karachi port trust, which each had their own regulations despite being required to coordinate with CDGK.

The system was dissolved when the 2001 LGO was scrapped by Sindh government.

[6] The first city government under Naimatullah Khan allowed the private sector to purchase imported, wide-bodied Compressed natural gas (CNG) buses.

The purchase was given a subsidy of 6%, a federal government waiver on import duty and sales tax, and a 70% loan markup financed by the banks.

According to the plan, the city needed 8,000 buses to replace aging, pollutant vehicles and improve Karachi's public transport infrastructure.

Initially, 300-350 buses were purchased, but 40% of the vehicles ended up in other locations.

A pilot project was initiated during the tenure of Mustafa Kamal.

High operating costs (caused by the high diesel price and unavailability of compressed natural gas), insufficient revenue, lack of funding by the city government after two years, failure to maintain the buses, and inability to secure a loan contributed to the failure of the project.

[7][8] Only 12 buses from this project remain operable, mainly on Shahrah-e-Faisal.

[9] Various departments were transferred to the KMC to streamline the local body system.