THIS is with reference to the report ‘Doctor, wife and three daughters found dead in Karachi apartment’ (Sept 21). The tragedy has deeply disturbed people. Reports indicate that the doctor was suffering from a serious illness, had left his employment and was facing severe financial difficulties. The family lived in an apartment building, and people around them apparently remained unaware of the extent of the family’s sufferings. It is hard to imagine how an entire family was going through such distress in an apartment block in the middle of a densely populated city.
We have built apartment buildings, housing societies and gated communities, but have we built communities in the true sense of the word? We communicate constantly through mobile phones and social media, but many people have never sat down with their neighbours. We may know what someone has posted online, but we may not know the family living next door.
Our urban centres urgently need to rediscover the concept of community. Every sizeable neighbourhood and district should have easily accessible community centres, not merely as halls for weddings and meetings, but as places where people can regularly meet, talk and seek assis- tance without feeling that they are being judged.
Such centres could provide community gatherings, counselling referrals, social activities, basic welfare information, employment guidance, medical and financial assistance linkages, and emergency support networks. Most importantly, they could create an environment in which people do talk to one another. We need to restore the human connection.
The most painful aspect of the tragedy is not the loss of lives; it is the possibility that suffering can remain completely invisible even in a city of millions. We should not wait for another locked door, another unbearable tragedy or another family to disappear before asking whether someone needed help. Society surely needs stronger institutions, better economic opportunities and effective public services. But alongside these, it needs something fundamental: people who know one another.
Nasir A. Qureshi
Karachi
Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2026
