Chowrangi

What appeared as another monsoon rainfall on Saturday June 23, 2007 has turned out to be a deadly gale and rain storm.Karachi weeps after more than 200 lives are lost to fallen trees, billboards and electric poles. Highest impact of rainfall was found in Gadap Town where 800 houses perished and 22 died.

Putting salt to the injury electricity went down since Saturday afternoon and most areas were still without lights after 30 hours. People came on streets to protest, burned tyres, torched vehicles and pelted stones.

While KESC throws the blame on natural calamity, Karachities are aware of KESC’s role in previous rainfalls. As happened last year (here and here), power went down as soon as first drop of rain poured down. While it’s true that in most areas billboards and trees tripped the wires down and electric poles were uprooted by the winds, KESC is not efficient enough to put things back to order even after 30 hours. Their customer service staff either put the phone on side or left their offices. People had to suffer in post-rain humidity due to inefficiency of KESC.

KESC should also be held responsible for deaths through electrocution. Unlike their claim against fallen billboards, electrocution is nothing new and dozens die during rainfalls each year due to electrocution caused by fallen wires. What sort of disaster management plan KESC had in this regard?

Questions are raised from all walks of life on giant sized, awkwardly placed billboards that played major role in the death toll. GEO asked the question to City Nazim Mustafa Kamal on which he stated that very small number of billboards fall in his jurisdiction and most of the killer billboards are in cantonment limits. One wonders what the Governor and Chief Minister has to say on this. Whether they feel morally responsible for the deaths or not.

Interestingly, according to Pakistan Railways statement, there are 48 billboards on their land and all of them are illegal but Pakistan Railways can’t doing anything against them due to court stay order.

Also, there is a study by NGO Shehri that 13,000 out of 17,000 billboards placed in Karachi are illegal.

The intentions of city and provincial government can be ascertained from the fact that till Sunday night (more than 24 hours after the rainfall) official death toll from rains (released from Governor House) was 66. While Edhi sources claimed 235 deaths on the basis of bodies that reached Edhi morgue.

Putting all the blame game aside, it is time for us to stop for a moment and think why this has happened. It is true that nothing happens without the will of Allah. Why 17.7mm (0.7in) of rain has caused so much destruction? The Killings of 12th May, the power crisis, the heat, the fires and now the destruction through rain are all signs for us to ponder and repent until its too late.

Other posts by Kashif Aziz

• Urgently Wanted : Federal Ministers - November 19th, 2008
• GEO TV Transmission blocked in Karachi? - November 17th, 2008
• American meat exporters using fradulent halal certificates - November 14th, 2008
• The case of Khanani and Kalia - November 10th, 2008
• Alcohol Exports Bring $220 Million To Pakistan - November 9th, 2008
• Open Letter of Appreciation to Government of Pakistan - November 5th, 2008
• Earthquake Strikes in Balochistan: More than 250 dead, 20,000 displaced - October 30th, 2008
• Pity the Nation - October 26th, 2008
• Lab Pay Aati Hai Dua .. Ban Kay Tamanna Meri - October 16th, 2008
• Predictions of the Century: The Fate of Sarah Palin, and Asif Ali Zardari and United States of America - October 12th, 2008

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