KARACHI: The All Pakistan Organization of Small Traders and Cottage Industries Karachi on Friday expressed deep grief over the devastation caused by the recent rains in the city, holding Mayor Karachi and Sindh Chief Minister directly responsible for what they termed cruel and stone-hearted conduct.
President Mahmood Hamid, Senior Vice President Syed Liaquat Ali, Vice President Javed Haji Abdullah, Syed Naveed Ahmed, and Usman Sharif said that despite prior forecasts of heavy rainfall, no preventive measures were taken by Mayor Karachi to safeguard citizens and businesses.
They said that as a result, areas stretching from Keamari to Sohrab Goth, Gulshan-e-Iqbal to Saadi Town, and Landhi were inundated with five to ten feet of water, submerging markets and residential neighborhoods. Traders and residents suffered losses worth billions of rupees, while no official arrangements have yet been made to drain the stagnant water. Whatever little work has been done, they added, was through self-help or support of NGOs.
The trade leaders said that while Karachi’s citizens were drowning and their savings were being destroyed due to mismanagement and corruption, the mayor was busy in photo sessions, dressed in starched clothes, delivering “all-is-well” speeches that rubbed salt into the wounds of the public.
They questioned why Karachi, which contributes 70 percent to the federal exchequer and 95 percent to the provincial government, is subjected to such merciless treatment.
The leaders pointed out that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) already collects millions in taxes from the people and traders, yet the present mayor, after assuming office, imposed an additional burden. Initially, all citizens were charged a municipal tax of Rs 450 per month, but without approval it was increased by Rs 300 to Rs 750 per month, collected through electricity bills.
With 3.8 million K-Electric consumers, the mayor is forcibly extracting Rs 285 crore annually from citizens’ pockets, they said. Despite such heavy taxation, they lamented, not a single benefit is reaching the poor or the taxpayers during calamities like the recent rains.
The trad representatives demanded that immediate arrangements be made to drain water from markets, and that an assessment of traders’ losses be carried out so they can be compensated.
They further called for judicial investigations into the failure to clean Karachi’s drains, the washing away of the multibillion-rupee Shahrae Bhutto, and the collapse of the first section of Hub Dam, which was destroyed soon after its Rs 12 billion inauguration.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
