Imran Khan has ordered NDMA to fix Karachi. PM has directed Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to reach Karachi to fix the mayhem Pakistan’s largest metropolis is facing in the wake of unusually heavy rains.
“I have asked the NDMA Chairman to go to Karachi immediately and start the clean-up in the aftermath of the rain,” PM Imran Khan announced in a premier in a tweet.
I have asked the NDMA Chairman to go to Karachi immediately and start the clean up in the aftermath of the rain.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) July 29, 2020
Multiple people had died due to electrocution during the three days of rain that started on Sunday. Several roads, streets and homes were flooded with rainwater.
The tweet by PM Khan Imran Khan ordering NDMA to fix Karachi came hours after a Sindh minister criticised the federal government for not doing anything for the city.
Saeed Ghani, the Sindh education minister, said in a press conference that a PTI minister and the Karachi mayor didn’t let the provincial government remove encroachments from two major nullahs in the city.
He had claimed that people had built houses on Gujjar and Mehmoodabad nullahs, adding that rainwater entered the houses because they are built over them.
Will Sindh Govt like Imran Khan’s initiative on Karachi?
But will Imran Khan ordering NDMA to rescue Karachi be welcomed by PPP?. If past is any precedent then, Sindh’s PPP government may not be happy on federal intervention or PM Imran Khan’s initiative as expressed in his tweet. Several months ago, federal minister, Ali Zaidi, took the initiative of cleaning the city and clearing its stuck-up drainage channels, (called Nullahs in local Urdu) and it did not go well with the Sindh government.
Ali Zaidi is from Karachi and is federal minister for ports and shipping. He had raised funds from private sources and got involved Frontier Works Organization (FWO) that brought heavy machinery to clean the drainage channels. Ali Zaidi had taken PM Imran Khan into confidence and was working with the Sindh government but Sindh’s PPP government had then blamed him for spreading the garbage all over. Pakistan’s largest metropolis – with population over 25 million – needs a proper solid waste management system, but Sindh government has not been able to provide one for the city
Why is no money available for improving Karachi?
Karachi rains have played havoc with lives
Karachi is continuously suffering due to heavy rains and flooding in several parts of the city for past several days. Cars floating in flood water and people walking in neck deep water have become familiar sites on tv screens and twitter. However Sindh government and PPP leaders and family members of Ex-President Asif Ali Zardari were found giving different kinds of explanations. At times these back fired.
Karachi Rain: Saeed Ghani, Bakhtawar Bhutto’s tweets backfired on social media
However on Monday, again at least three people lost their lives as the second straight day of moderate to heavy rain turned many roads in Karachi into rivers. Sindh government again showed total helplessness in the face of what its ministers described “natural calamities” and argued that the the situation “could have been worse” had it not been for its efforts – reports country’s largest English paper, The Dawn.
It could have been worse, Sindh Govt, The Dawn
Residents of Karachi however took to social media to vent their anger about the now all-too-familiar devastation caused by the showers and shared videos that showed rainwater mixed with sewage surging through narrow alleys, people using boats to cross roads and cars floating away on flooded roads as if they were made of plastic.
According to the Met Office, and as reported in newspapers, Karachi on Monday had received a maximum 34mm of rain in Nazimabad, University Road/Jauhar (10.2mm), North Karachi (8.8mm), Karachi MOS (1.8mm), Jinnah Terminal (0.8mm), Surjani (0.4mm). Many other areas including Saddar, Landhi and Gulshan-i-Hadeed did not receive any rain.
Three electrocuted in latest rains
Three people were again electrocuted to death. Two labourers were electrocuted in Mochko area the evening. Station House Officer (SHO) Wasim Ahmed told media heavy rain had created a pond inside Al-Badar Godown, which deals with the crushing of stones, located on Suparco Road. Four labourers were trying to install a suction motor to remove rainwater when they suffered an electric shock. Two of them died while the other two suffered a minor shock. The bodies were shifted to Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi to fulfil legal formalities.
In another incident, a 45-year-old man was electrocuted in Orangi Town’s Sector 11-1/2 while trying to turn on a motor, according to Pakistan Bazaar SHO Iqbal Husain Tunio.
On Sunday, at least five people, including two children, had died in various rain-related incidents in the metropolis.
Rain is “Natural Calamity”: Sind Government.
On a visit to different areas of the city, Sindh Minister for Information and Local Government Nasir Hussain Shah appeared to defend the provincial government’s efforts, saying torrential rainfall manifests itself in the form of a “natural calamity”, which he said “no human being has control over”.
While conceding that the situation is “not 100 per cent”, Shah claimed that the Sindh government has been implementing emergency measures for the last several months under a “comprehensive and integrated policy”.
“In today’s torrential rain, while the ministers of the Sindh government have been continuously serving the people since last night, some evil elements are merely slandering our character on their Twitter accounts and social media pages,” Shah was quoting as saying in a statement.
“We have no hesitation in saying that if the Sindh government had not taken timely steps to clean storm-water drains, the situation could have been even worse,” he added.
He appealed to the people not to leave their homes unnecessarily and stay away from electricity poles.
According to the statement, Shah inspected the cleaning process of all storm-water drains of the city including in Nazimabad, Liaquatabad, Surjani, Gulbahar, Orangi Town, New Karachi and North Nazimabad. He directed workers to make the relief activities “more effective and efficient”.