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KARACHI The city received approximately 35mm of rain on Sunday after showers began in the afternoon and continued till late in the night, bringing relief to Karachiites, who had been enduring high temperatures for the last few days.
The city's chief weatherman, Mohammad Riaz, told Dawn that the city and its adjoining coastal belt in lower Sindh and Balochistan are expected to receive more rainfall on Monday as a monsoon system passes through the area. The weather system originated in the Bay of Bengal four days ago and traveled westwards over the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan before entering Pakistan.
The Met office recorded 35mm of rain in North Karachi and 33mm at Sharea Faisal and at the airport, while PAF Base Masroor, Landhi and University Road received 32mm, 25mm and 24mm of rain, respectively.
Met department officials said that the rain had been greater in intensity nearer to the coast, particularly at fishing villages dotting the city's seashore, but that no data was available for these sites as there was no rain measuring equipment available there.
Though the rain was not as intense as it was in the earlier monsoon showers this season, the fragility of the city's infrastructure was once again exposed, as low-lying areas and older parts of the city were badly affected by the precipitation.
The areas affected included North Nazimabad, Sakhi Hassan, Hyderi, Nagin Chowrangi, Liaquatabad, Patel Para, Soldier Bazaar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Shah Faisal Colony, North Karachi and Gulistan-i-Jauhar. Numerous roads remained inundated.
One of the main thoroughfares of the city, Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road, on which the Chief Minister's House and two five-star hotels are located, remained underwater near the temporary headquarters of the Pakistan Rangers. Similarly, roads near the Sindh Assembly, Governor's House, and the Sindh High Court also remained submerged.
As it was Sunday, traffic on the roads was already relatively thin, and as the rain began the few public transport vehicles that had been plying their routes also disappeared. A few of these did reappear later in the day, when the intensity of the rainfall decreased. Desperate commuters could be seen traveling on the rooftops of these vehicles, while others clung to the gates.
