Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab on Wednesday night visited the bereaved family of a three-year-old boy who fell into an open manhole and drowned in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, assuring them of impartial investigation and action against those found negligent.
The body of the boy, who drowned in an open manhole near Nipa in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Sunday night, was found on Monday, about 15 hours after the incident occurred.
The boy’s tragic death, particularly the lack of cooperation from relevant civic agencies to launch an immediate search, angered relatives and residents of the area, who staged a protest on University Road on Sunday night and again during the day on Monday.
On Tuesday, many political parties staged protests against the provincial administration and demanded the resignation of Karachi’s mayor, while pleas were also filed in court demanding action against city officials.
A post by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation on X on Wednesday night said the mayor visited the boy’s family and expressed his condolences.
“An impartial investigation will be carried out and anyone found negligent will face action. We will take structured measures to prevent incidents like this in the future,” the post quoted the mayor as saying.
At a news conference after meeting with the family, the mayor called the incident a “painful and shameful loss” and said he had no words to adequately describe it.
“I say that I seek forgiveness, it was my fault… I think that as mayor I was not successful, for which I express my remorse.”
He said the response from the government, administration and authorities should be “prompt and appropriate” to prevent anyone else from being a victim of the same circumstances in the future.
Wahab added that he did not want to get bogged down in a “blame game” and said he accepted responsibility as arguing about the matter would not solve the problem.
The mayor further stated that he was conveying the sentiment from the highest level of the provincial government and the PPP leadership that the reasons and issues that led to the child’s death would no longer be tolerated and that action was now being taken.
A Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) report on the incident attributed the incident to “carelessness” of officials of the bus rapid transit (BRT) service and a department store adjacent to where the incident took place, it emerged today.
The KMC report, a copy of which is available with SunriseHe said the department had received instructions from the Mayor of Karachi and the Municipal Commissioner to launch an operation to recover the boy’s body from the drain located in front of Chase Department Store in Nipa.
He said that after the boy’s body was recovered, “the site was meticulously inspected to determine the exact cause of the drowning.”
According to the report, the inspection found that ongoing BRT construction work at the site was a “significant contributing factor.”
“According to the reports of the concerned inspector and residents of the area, the construction of the BRT has caused serious damage and disruption to the entire drainage system, which runs from Nipa towards Aziz Bhatti Park,” he said.
“It was observed that, in most locations, the drains were covered with two-by-two-foot square temporary covers. Unfortunately, one of these covers was allegedly left open in front of the Chase Department Store,” he said.
“It is pertinent to mention that the procedure of covering the cleaning pits with two by two feet square covers from Nipa road to Aziz Bhatti Park is a non-standard practice which KMC never implemented anywhere,” he said.
He further highlighted that BRT service officials had not formally notified or obtained permission from the KMC before carrying out excavation work.
“These pits were dug by BRT officials and subsequently paved during the construction of the road,” the report said.
In light of those facts, the report concluded that the incident occurred due to “carelessness on the part of both the BRT officials involved and Chase Departmental Store management,” as “neither took adequate steps to ensure the open drain.”
It is worth mentioning that the construction of the Red Line BRT project has turned the city’s main arteries, including one of the busiest, University Road, into construction zones.
The report added that under the supervision of Eastern District Deputy Commissioner, Gulshan-i-Iqbal Deputy Commissioner and BRT engineers, the dug pits had been filled to maintain traffic flow.
