Child’s drowning in manhole: Karachi mayor assures ‘impartial inquiry’, action against those found ‘negligent’ in visit to family – Pakistan
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab visited the grieving family of a three-year-old boy who fell and drowned in an open manhole in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Wednesday night, assuring the relatives of an impartial inquiry into the matter with 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, around 15 hours after the incident occurred.
The child’s tragic death, particularly the lack of cooperation from relevant civic agencies to launch an immediate search, had angered relatives and area residents, who staged a protest on University Road on Sunday night and again during the day on Monday.
On Tuesday, many political parties held protests against the provincial administration and demanded that the Karachi mayor resign, while pleas were also filed in courts 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 extended his condolences.
“An impartial inquiry will be conducted, and anyone found negligent will face action. We will take structured measures to prevent such incidents in the future,” the post quoted him as saying.
A report by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on the incident attributed the incident to the “carelessness” of officials from the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service and a department store adjacent to where the incident took place, it emerged earlier today.
The report by the KMC, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said that the department had received instructions from the Karachi mayor and the municipal commissioner to initiate an operation for recovering the body of the child from the drain located in front of Chase Departmental Store in Nipa.
It said that following the retrieval of the child’s body, “the site was meticulously inspected to ascertain the exact cause of the drowning”.
According to the report, the inspection found the ongoing BRT construction work at the location to be a “significant contributing factor”.
“Based on reports from the concerned inspector and area residents, the BRT construction has resulted in the severe damage and disruption of the entire drainage system, which runs from Nipa towards Aziz Bhatti Park,” it said.
“It was observed that, at most locations, the drains were covered with temporary two-by-two-foot square covers. Unfortunately, one of these covers was reportedly left open in front of the Chase Departmental Store,” it said.
“It is pertinent to mention that the procedure of covering cleaning pits with two-by-two-foot square covers from Nipa to Aziz Bhatti Park road is a non-standard practice never implemented by KMC at any location,” it said.
It further stressed that BRT service officials had failed to formally notify or obtain clearance from KMC before carrying out excavation work.
“These pits were excavated by BRT officials and subsequently paved over during road construction,” the report said.
In light of those facts, the report concluded that the incident occurred due to the “carelessness of both the concerned BRT officials and the management of Chase Departmental Store” as “neither took adequate measures to secure the open drain”.
It should be mentioned that the construction of the BRT’s Red Line project has turned the city’s major arteries, including one of the busiest thoroughfares, University Road, into construction zones.
The report added that under the monitoring of the deputy commissioner for District East, the assistant commissioner of Gulshan-i-Iqbal, and BRT engineers, the excavated pits had been refilled to maintain the flow of traffic.
