KARACHI, Aug 25: A suit for damages has been filed in the Sindh High Court by the parents of two children against the city district government, the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and others for the accidental death of their children caused due to alleged negligence of these utility bodies.

Shehla Raza and Ghulam Qadir claimed an aggregate Rs24.6 million through their counsel Nasir Maqsood and Aamir Maqsood, by filing a suit for damages and compensation for the deaths of their children in the open drain on Sept 6, 2005.

They impleaded the City District Government Karachi, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board, the Al-Mehran Builders, Contractor Supervisors Waqar Awan, Faisal, Fahad and City Government’s site Engineer Shabi-ul-Hassan and taxi owner Merajuddin and driver Rasheed Ahmed.

It was, inter alia, contended that on Sept 6, 2005, they hired a taxi and boarded with their children, Shayan, 11, Ukse Batool, 13, for going towards Sohrab Goth on main Abul Hassan Isphani Road.

When they reached opposite Memon Bara Market at 7:40pm, the taxi fell in a 28 feet deep sewerage drain as the driver could not locate the drain due to darkness and because there was no precautionary notice and because no safety measures were taken, the children received fatal injuries and died.

It was contended that the death of the children was caused due to negligence, default and wrongful act of the defendants who failed to foresee the fatal consequences of leaving the sewerage drain open in a perilous state.

It was the obligation of the City Government and the Water Board to make proper security measures to make the road-users aware about the dangers involved therein and ought to have put protective walls, fences, barricades or should have fully covered the open drain to obviate the chances of danger, but the defendants indulged in negligence.

The plaintiff alleged that the city nazim ordered an enquiry after the incident and formed a committee to submit a report within three days, but even after a lapse of nine months, no progress had been made, nor plaintiffs were called to associate with the enquiry.