KARACHI: City Mayor Wasim Akhtar on Saturday appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of recent incidents of electrocution in which many children have been rendered permanently disabled.

He urged the CJP to direct the K-Electric (KE) to ensure safety of people and “not to become a monster” for them.

The mayor was speaking to the media at the Civil Hospital Karachi after visiting the eight-year-old boy, Umer, who has lost both his hands due to severe burns after an electric wire carrying 11kV current fell on him. The incident had taken place on Aug 25 in a street of Ahsanabad, Sector-4, off Superhighway, where the boy was playing. The doctors had to amputate both hands of the victim to save his life.

Consoling the child and his parents, the mayor said that one of the victim’s family members could be given employment in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation if they desired so.

He demanded strict action against the K-Electric and asked the Chief Justice to take suo motu notice of the incidents.

He said that high-tension wires were passing over residential units posing a serious threat to the lives of people.

The mayor called for legislation to ensure compensation to the victims of such incidents.

Besides Umer, a 13-year-old boy, Haris, has also lost his hands in another recent incident.

The family members of the victims have asked the K-Electric to bear all expanses to be incurred in the treatment of their children abroad because no advance prosthesis treatment facility is available in Pakistan for amputated arms.

Holiday on Ghazi urs

The mayor has announced a local holiday on account of the urs of Hazrat Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi on Sept 3.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2018