Formerly known as the City of Lights, Karachi has transitioned into the City of Darkness, not due to a blackout but due to a human tragedy. Every parent should be spared the agony of losing his or her child.
Ibrahim's death was not a random event. Rather, it was due to more than a decade of Government negligence.
Ibrahim disappeared after falling into an open manhole while enjoying a normal day out with his family.
For fifteen years, the people of Karachi have made multiple reports concerning dangerous, uncovered manholes, yet have received no response from government officials, leaving the streets unsafe for children. The passing of Ibrahim has reminded the city of the terrible failure of the system, as his body took fifteen hours to recover from the manhole. Families have to wait how long? How many further lives need to be lost? The nation is grieving and shocked.
The Ray Hope rescue team, family, and neighbors searched through the night with torchlights. When official teams arrived, the tools needed were either delayed or not suitable enough to safely retrieve the child.
The incident involving Ibrahim is not an isolated event, as it was recently reported that a minimum of sixty-eight individuals were killed as a result of manholes this year, and nothing was done to address the crisis. There are many other victims besides children; several workers, including sanitary workers, have also died in this manner, but no charges have ever been filed against any authority or entity related to the tragic incidents. For instance, a father and son in Islamabad perished after dropping into a manhole in July 2023. A lawsuit has been brought against the Capital Development Authority and the Rescue teams for this awful event.
Unsafe manholes are a problem in several localities within Pakistan, including Islamabad and Peshawar. According to reports submitted to the police between October 23 and December 1, 2023, a total of 1,543 cases involving uncovered hazardous manholes were reported. No action has been taken regarding these reports by the police, and since this date, lives have been lost due to these unsafe manholes.
Following this specific Ibrahim case, several individuals have shown their rage over it. Mahira Khan, Sajal Ali, Talha Yunus, and other stars criticized the badly run civic infrastructure. Issues with the Government's inability to cover manholes and how millions were used for e-challans have become a topic of concern for a number of individuals. A wave of anger spread across various social media platforms as a result of the growing public outrage, and hashtags (#JusticeForIbrahim, #KarachiTragedy, #NipaChowrangi, #NIPAIncident, #OpenManholes) were created. The incident of Ibrahim losing his life due to the negligence of the Government has created an outcry from the general populace.
Firstly, some people tried to dismiss the act as an isolated desire, a mere incident. These individuals even blamed the innocent child, instead of the impersonal representatives of the government, providing an insensitive escape route from responsibility. That the authorities did not take accountability for their actions, saying the child "should've been more careful," created further outrage and anger. The Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) is the primary authority responsible for providing water to Karachi in addition to ensuring safe access to manholes across the city. An estimated number of people lost their lives due to this issue, and the Edhi Foundation recorded a number of deaths directly linked to this crisis. However, in place of admitting their wrongdoing, government officials have only offered empty words of consolation to the family of the deceased child.
Between January 2022 and the present, at least 23 people have been killed by falling into open manholes in Karachi, and an additional 68 people are said to be missing due to the same reasons. The tragic story of the late Ibrahim has generated a lot of anger on social media and has prompted many members of the public to question why the government is not doing anything to make sure that the streets are safe for public use. On December 1, 2021, a huge protest was held at the Sindh Assembly regarding the issue, and a number of the lawmakers who were there stated that people need to be held accountable for the deaths of others due to negligence in the form of the crime, and that people need to be held accountable for the lack of precautions that are put in place to protect them.
As part of their ongoing campaign to topple Mayor Murtaza Wahab, opposition party members protested at KMC HQ on Dec 1, 2022, chanting together that "Resign Mayor Wahab". In November 2022, following the unfortunate death of a 3-year-old boy, KMC was commanded by the mayor to create new Standard Operating Procedures for dealing with open manholes to speed up the process of handling these types of complaints. The explanation behind this is that manhole covers are stolen by the scrap-metal mafia; yet, so far, the government has taken no steps to stop this from happening.
The reason these open manholes became known throughout the world and caused public fury was only because to the greater public and media attention.
Is there no authority to hold them accountable for the disappearance of these manhole covers? Why has there no action been taken regarding their disappearance?
Daily, in Karachi and Hyderabad, many manhole covers are stolen. Many municipalities in Karachi have reported that approximately 20 manhole covers are stolen per day, and very little has been done to address this issue. Many of those thefts are committed by drug addicts who sell the covers for quick cash to scrap dealers. Rather than directly addressing the issue, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) is providing funding to Union Committees in order to purchase new covers, and numerous KMC Officers have been suspended due to their negligence in protecting the covers and preventing them from being stolen. The problem with this crisis is the result of years of neglecting citizen complaints, poor urban planning, and poor civic coordination.
As stated earlier, the outcome of Ibrahim’s incident indicates the Government's lack of action and the Police Department's lack of responsibility for its inaction. The tragic event of Ibrahim’s death created public pressure, pressure for legal action to be taken, and promises for the future of the citizens of Karachi and for better urban planning in the future.
This tragedy highlights the fact that negligence can have severe repercussions; therefore, unless and until real changes are made, the streets of Karachi will continue to be dangerous, and lives will continue to be lost.
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