Daily Times

Once again it rained in Karachi and in only half a day the entire city, including upscale neghbourhoods, was under water, traffic was jammed, life paralysed, and people were dying of electrocution. Even hospitals, with their ceilings leaking water, struggled to provide relief to the few people that were able to brave the deluge and reach them. And, as usual, the city administration has been making tall claims about draining the water and helping all those in need but there is precious little on the ground to back their words.

And so life goes on in the country’s largest city, its business hub and largest contributor to the tax purse. What is more, the rain is expected to continue for a little while longer, and more spells are also expected soon enough, so it can be said very safely that there will be no end to the misery of common people in Karachi for a while to come. One can also be sure that the city’s electricity supply can never stay on even when there’s the slightest rain. And, true to form, power supply to at least 190 feeders has been interrupted and people as well as businesses are forced to carry on without any power, which presents its own set of problems.

It’s not as if nobody has ever tried to do something about Karachi. The PPP government often comes up with schemes and packages and promises that it has finally stumbled upon the solution to the city’s problems. But it’s another thing that those plans never see the light of day even as more ambitious ones are announced as new rains come. The federal government, especially this one, has also thought of sprinkling enough cash on the city to take care of its ills. But it’s just not comfortable working with PPP in Sindh, so the only thing that has happened so far is that the Sindh and federal governments have argued to no end about which of them would waste more money if it ever came.

This is not something that was very hard for PPP to handle. And it would have made for excellent optics – the provincial administration coming to the aid of the people in their hour of need. Yet PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto is giving the impression that he has bigger fish to fry and he’s picked this time to head to South Punjab and rally jiyalas there for another province there, while his own province is drowning in the rain. This must have left the people bitterly disappointed.. *