From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: The rainwater has been cleared from Tower, NICVD and other areas, an emergency meeting chaired by Chief Minister Murad Shah was informed.
Chief Secretary of Sindh Sohail Rajput, in a review meeting briefed that he has visited the city to monitor the situation of rainwater. He said the water has been pumped out from Mereweather Tower, the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Jinnah Post-graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) and from the underpasses.
“The rainwater still present at Kharadar’s Allahwala Park and I.I. Chundrigar road,” he briefed to the chief minister.
“I have visited the city alone, the water has been removed from areas but sewage and dirt still present over there,” Murad Ali Shah said.
He urged the officials to hire sweepers and sanitary workers, ” I want removal of sewage from these areas,” he said.
“An additional work force should be hired to open the drainage lines, which have been choked,” Chief Minister Shah ordered. “Remove the sewage and dirt from the Secretariat, High Court and underpasses, I will visit these areas,” he directed.
“A fresh spell of rainfall has been predicted, deploy the staff and machinery in areas, which have faced problems in the rainfall,” he further directed.
Chief Secretary informed the meeting that the EBM Causway has been repaired and opened for vehicular traffic, while the work has been in progress at Korangi Causway.
CM Shah directed the rehabilitation department to use all 15 available pumps immediately at Shaheen Complex, Qayyumabad, Urdu University and other places to pump out the rainwater.
Sindh ministers Sharjeel Memon, Imtiaz Shaikh, Nasir Shah, Adviser Rasool Bux Chandio, Chief Secretary Sohail Rajput, Commissioner Karachi Iqbal Memon, secretary local government Najam Shah, special secretary Raheem Shaikh, secretary rehabilitation Asif Memon, D.G. PDMA Salman Shah, M.D. Sindh Solid Waste Management Board Zubair Channa and others attended the meeting.
Meanwhile, Following the situation in Karachi after the heavy rains that wreaked havoc on the metropolis and brought life to a standstill, Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari, the sister of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, spoke in support of the provincial government after it faced heavy backlash, saying it prepared in advance “as much as humanly possible”.
Taking to Twitter, Bakhtawar said most developed cities have flooded over the years due to climate change that has resulted in unprecedented rain.
“Karachi is no exception and just broke its own record (more accurate to say floods). PPP Sindh government was on-site 24/7 (rain needs to stop before clearing),” she added.
Bakhtawar claimed that the Sindh government prepared beforehand by clearing hundreds of storm drains last month, adding that the “rest is purposefully misleading and ignorant politics”.
Comparing the Sindh government with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s and Balochistan’s, she said that “KP drowned yet not in headlines. Also Balochistan. Compare where their CMs and ministers were in the last 24 hours vs Karachi.”
