Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh Vice President Rizwan Niazi today alleged that the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) 18-year rule has transformed Karachi from a metropolitan city into what he described as a “garbage dump,” blaming the provincial government for failing to provide basic municipal services.
He said the city’s streets, neighbourhoods, drains and major roads remained littered with piles of garbage, while the Sindh government and relevant civic authorities had failed to fulfil their constitutional and administrative responsibilities.
Rizwan Niazi claimed that Karachi generated around 16,000 tonnes of solid waste every day, but due to the absence of an efficient collection and disposal system, thousands of tonnes of waste remained scattered across residential areas, roads and storm-water drains. He further alleged that despite residents paying sanitation fees and taxes, the city had been without an organised and effective waste management system for years.
He said the accumulation of garbage across the city was contributing to foul odours, environmental pollution and the spread of diseases. According to Rizwan Niazi, illnesses such as AIDS, dengue fever, malaria, typhoid, skin infections and respiratory diseases were becoming increasingly common, while the provincial government had failed to take meaningful steps to safeguard public health. He alleged that the lives of Karachi’s residents were being put at risk due to official negligence.
The PTI leader further claimed that years of administrative failures and poor governance had pushed Karachi to one of the lowest positions among the world’s least liveable cities, which he described as evidence of the Sindh government’s poor performance. He said that although the PPP had claimed to have spent billions of rupees on Karachi over the past 18 years, it had failed to introduce an effective plan to make the city cleaner, healthier and more liveable.
Rizwan Niazi called for the immediate implementation of a modern solid waste management system in Karachi, the establishment of an effective daily garbage collection mechanism at the union council level, and the urgent clearance of waste from streets and drainage channels. He said emergency measures were needed to rid the city of accumulated garbage and reiterated that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf would continue raising its voice for the protection of Karachi residents’ basic civic rights.