Rebuilding the city

Sindh is trying to recover from the recent heavy rains which hit the province, including capital Karachi which was left in complete chaos. Prime Minister Imran Khan is expected in the city on Saturday. Regarding this, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that he hopes the prime minister will come with a package of relief, rescue and rebuilding for a city that badly needs it. He has also pointed out that while the Sindh government has done all that it could to revive the city, and return it to normalcy, it requires far more funds to rebuild the damage inflicted on the city, first by the coronavirus pandemic then by locusts and most badly of all by the recent urban flooding which took place two times over the last month. Bilawal has also said that the NDMA needs to give more funds to help Karachi rebuild and revive its infrastructure so that life can resume as normal. Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has requested Rs800 billion to put the infrastructure of Karachi back to normal.

In his own press conference, the CM of Sindh has pointed to many of the same problems and also sought major financial help. He stressed that it is urgent that Karachi make a complete recovery so that it keeps up its work in contributing to the country and generate the revenue that is required to keep the economy afloat. There has also been concern in the city about the safety of certain underpasses. Messages posted over social media had declared that one particular underpass was not safe. The Sindh government has refuted these rumours, and said that the underpass was visited by a team of experts including engineers from the NED University, who declared that the structure was intact and perfectly safe for use by vehicles.

The government has also warned against untruthful messages posted over social media, saying they have simply added to the panic. Bilawal Bhutto, meanwhile, has also criticized the power price hike proposed by the federal government, saying this is unsustainable in the present situation – and at a time when people are already deprived of the utility, and there is so much anger regarding that too. It is clear that the authorities in Sindh desperately want to restore the city. How quickly they can do so will depend on what help they receive and how much cooperation it is possible to generate.