IN a stunning rebuke to the Sindh government on the deteriorating conditions of Karachi’s civic infrastructure, the Supreme Court made some hard-hitting and pejorative observations.

“There are no trees, no greenery, no parks, no playgrounds, no roads, no hospitals, no universities, no schools, no colleges except those which were made by the government somewhere about 40 years ago. No water, no sewerage, no safe and secure and decent recreation and shopping areas. There is on all roads katcha or pukka dirt, filth, heaps of garbage, sewerage water, defaced walls, incomplete and unpainted ghostly haunted structures, ruined buildings in [a] state of imminent collapse, stray dogs menace, no fumigation of the city to rid itself form (sic) dangerous life-threatening germs and mosquitoes. Graveyard spaces have become scarce… Karachi has no semblance of a city rather it looks like a big chunk of a slum” (Dawn, May 16).

Dawn does a sterling service to the citizens of this blighted city by reporting on these issues on a daily basis. But one is at a loss to understand why the pictures published of overflowing gutters, flooded streets, heaps of garbage, nullahs choked with floating scum and anguished commuters stuck in hopeless traffic jams fail to move the rulers of this city.

Karachi is an orphan; no one takes ownership, yet it is ruthlessly exploited. The chokehold on Karachi is absolute.

Mercifully, the SC has now come to Karachi’s rescue. One hopes that the Sindh government will take cognizance of Karachi’s rapidly decaying civic infrastructure and act urgently to prevent the city from an imminent and ‘massive collapse’.

Hasan Pervez
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2019