City Council panel rejects all govt findings in child’s manhole death in Karachi
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KARACHI: The City Council’s Water and Sewerage Committee on Friday rejected all reports on the death of three-year-old Ibrahim presented by the officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) and TransKarachi.
The little boy fell into an open manhole near NIPA earlier this week and died.
The Water and Sewerage Committee, led by Leader of Opposition in the City Council Advocate Saifuddin, also criticised what was described as a pattern of “irresponsibility and indifference” of senior municipal officials responsible for handling the case.
The meeting called by the committee was attended by representatives from TransKarachi and the KWSC, but the municipal commissioner, despite being formally asked to provide essential details about the incident, neither appeared nor sent a representative.
After the meeting, the members of the committee visited the site of the incident where Saifuddin while talking to media said that the absence of the municipal commissioner reflected a “clear lack of seriousness from the KMC administration and the mayor’s office” especially given the gravity of the incident.
“Throughout the meeting, the departments attempted to distance themselves from responsibility,” he said.
“The officials from TransKarachi and the water board continued to hold each other accountable rather than presenting factual assessments. The KWSC’s initial report, which asserts that the storm-water drain involved in the incident does not fall under its jurisdiction, was categorically rejected by the committee for being incomplete and unsatisfactory.”
He said that although several officers had been suspended, the action seemed to be an attempt to pacify the public outrage rather than addressing the root cause of the tragedy.
“Four days have passed and the authorities still cannot determine who is responsible for leaving the manhole open. This is unacceptable,” he said, adding that such confusion exposed severe administrative gaps.
Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2025
