THE list of civic problems, each one eminently solvable, that plague the city of Karachi is getting so long and so noticeable that many citizens have been forced to take matters into their own hands, either organising committees for their neighbourhoods, creating online groups to pressure the city administration into action, or in one case, taking to stencilling a picture of the Sindh chief minister next to piles of garbage or open manholes, with the words “fix it!” written underneath. In the latter case, the activist responsible is a young marketing professional who also made a video of himself doing the stencilling and explaining why. One would have expected the chief minister to respond like a seasoned politician by taking the initiative to perhaps reach out to Alamgir Khan, even arrange a photo op of himself accompanying the young man to a number of locations with KMC staff, and ordering immediate action to fix some of the problems that he pointed out. Good politics would be to try and harness and co-opt the energies of activists like Mr Khan, and any seasoned politician would search for a way to do so.

But, instead, it appears the response of the city authorities has been to try and harass Mr Khan into silence. If this is true then it is craven politics, revealing the extremely insecure mind of the ruling party in the Sindh Assembly, which continues to run the affairs of the city despite local bodies elections having being held more than a month ago. If he has initiated any retaliatory actions against the activist, the chief minister should immediately rescind it, and, instead, take note of the problem. It is unfortunate that it is Mr Khan, along with some others, who has reportedly provided covers for some gaping manholes, with the government having apparently abdicated its responsibility. Meanwhile, Karachi’s denizens are entitled to better governance of their civic affairs, and there’s no harm in pointing this out in novel ways.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2016