THE recent rains once again underlined the fact that Karachi, once known as the City of Lights, stands on the verge of complete administrative collapse, largely due to the utter apathy shown by all successive federal, provincial and local governments.

In June this year, Karachi was ranked 170th out of 173 cities in the Livability Index released by the Economist In-telligence Unit (EIU), placing it as the fourth-worst city globally to live in.

Dying bit by bit, Karachi has a range of crises to deal with; from water shortage to crumbling roads, from poor infra-structure to mismanaged traffic, and from rampant beggary to a pathetic law and order situation.

This is despite the fact that Karachi handles 95 per cent of Pakistan’s foreign trade, produces 30pc of Pakistan’s in-dustrial output, contributes about 25pc of Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP), and collects 35pc of the country’s tax revenue.

The unfortunate state of Karachi can largely be attributed to the failure of the provincial government. Deep-rooted corruption and chronic incompetence have together ensured that little translates into real progress. Unfortunately, petty politics is involved at every tier of governance.

In the name of resilience, the Karachiites seem to have accepted commuting on the crumbling, congested, bumpy and muddy roads. They have accepted the poor infrastructure, mismanaged traffic and the pathetic law and order situation. That is the only choice they have.

Karachi has systematically been down-graded from its status as the City of Lights to the Garbage Dump of the country.

Maybe the people, irrespective of ethnicity and political affiliation, can turn it around by observing every weekend as a Peaceful Protest Day at the mausoleum of the Qauid-i-Azam.

Tahir Zaman
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2025