MY wife had fits of uncontrolled laughter when she read the front page news in Dawn (Feb 16) about the $45 billion deal signed between real estate tycoon of the Abu Dhabi Group and Pakistan’s Malik Riaz to build the world’s tallest building in Karachi.

Do we want to build the world’s tallest building in a country and a city which need almost every essential facility and amenity like education, healthcare, jobs, low-cost housing, power, gas, water, industrial growth, food, sewerage, efficient rail and road services, freedom from terrorism and ethnic violence?

The Abu Dhabi Group’s ignorance of our real needs is understandable but what of Malik Riaz? Or in building a bullet-proof residence for the president and swanky houses in his Bahria Town, he has completely lost sight of his country’s priorities?

If the two rich groups must collaborate to build the tallest tower in Karachi, let them build one of garbage of which there is plenty in Karachi.

It will not require expensive and much-needed steel and cement and will cost much less. It may help the citizens to get rid of piles of garbage that is found in every nook and corner of this metropolitan city.

ANWAR ABBAS Karachi