Daily Times

There’s a Mr Fix it in Karachi who has begun a movement to resolve the city’s worst problems.

The #FixIt campaign had been launched by Alamgir Khan, a Karachi resident who began the movement by spray painting potholes with the aforementioned hashtag. Then, he began drawing then Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah’s image on potholes in an attempt to draw the authorities’ attention towards municipal issues.

Soon, the campaign gained popularity across social media. The next step was the launch of a #FixIt smartphone application through which citizens can report issues and plan appropriate action.

It is heartening to see that residents of the country’s largest city are no longer ready to remain passive recipients of government largesse. These residents — equipped with social media and information and communication technologies — are ready to take responsibility to improve their city.

However, the campaigners must not lose sight of the fact that they are dealing with a city whose population stands at around 15 million, according to the latest census. Karachi’s major political party contests this figure and unofficial estimates put the population close to 18 million.

A city of this size needs not just an empowered and a responsibly citizenry — but also an efficient and responsive government.

As they attempt to solve Karachi’s problems on their own, the campaigners must also continue to build pressure for municipal reform and better accountability. Towards this end, they must seek out like-minded citizens to build a broad-based alliance that covers all neighbourhoods across the city. The original message of their campaign was a demand to the authorities to do their job. They must pursue this as they continue with their commendable activism.  *

Published in Daily Times, November 23^rd 2017.