A power struggle over Karachi

Karachi, the world’s seventh and Pakistan’s largest city, is beset by innumerable problems due to a power struggle between political parties. Instead of addressing the problems of the people of Karachi, the politicians always complained about not having powers or authority. In this situation, the citizens and the city always struggle.

Meanwhile, the PTI-led federal government is apparently taking measures to address the issues of Karachi including power crisis and sanitation. However, recent reports claimed that the stakeholders oh Karachi – PPP, PTI, and MQM-P – had formed a committee for Karachi issues, which was later refuted by several PPP ministers.

If we talk about the issues of Karachi, water supply is the leading problem. Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), the department responsible for supplying water to Karachi, always complained about the lack of water but illegally sell waters to tankers.

The city’s second major problem is sewerage and sanitation, which everyone has witnessed in the recent spell of monsoon rains. The sanitation problem is constantly increasing and the concerned authorities are busy in illegal practices.

Previously, the municipality and its subsidiaries were responsible for sanitation, and later the Sindh government formed a Solid Waste Management Board and handed over the responsibility of sanitation to it. After which the piles of garbage in Karachi are enough to clarify the performance of this board.

According to several reports, Karachi produces more than 12,000 tons of garbage daily, of which 8,000 tons are picked up and disposed of. And the remaining 4,000 tons of garbage enhances the beauty of Karachi’s roads. Every Karachi’s stakeholders are playing politics on the issue of sanitation but no concrete steps are seen to resolve this problem.

Encroachment is also the major problem for a mega city like Karachi. No roads, sidewalks, or even nullahs in the city are safe from encroachments. With the cooperation of the concerned agencies and the police, Karachi has become a city of encroachments instead of a city of lights. Mayor Karachi and the concerned authorities are not ready to stop or accept responsibility for encroachments.

How we can forget power outrages? Overbilling and load shedding is not less than a punishment for citizens. No area of Karachi is safe from load shedding and citizens have become mentally ill due to overbilling. Despite the Supreme Court’s intervention and stern orders, K-Electric does not provide facilities due to its political backing.

Karachi is at the mercy of MQM, PPP, and PTI at the same time. MQM in local government, Sindh in province and PTI in Centre all parties gave the people of Karachi nothing but disappointment.

PPP is not interested in solving Karachi’s problems, the MQM has an excuse of incompetence while the PTI cannot intervene directly, the consequences of which are being borne by the citizens.

The PTI federal government wants to subjugate Karachi to solve its long-standing problems but the PPP is not ready to hand over Karachi to the Centre under any circumstances. The only way Karachi’s struggle could be finished when the power struggle comes to an end and all the stakeholders work in cooperation, which always sounds like a dream.