Haleem demands steps to save Karachi from flooding

KARACHI: Expressing serious concerns over the lack of preparedness by the Sindh government to cope with expected torrential rains in megacity Karachi, Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh Sunday demanded urgent steps to save the city from potential urban flooding.

Haleem visited the Gujjar Nullah and Mehmoodabad areas today to review the situation and take information from local citizens, who complained a lot about the lack of emergency measures to cope with possible rains.

Talking to media, Haleem said that the claims of rain emergency by the Sindh government were plain lies. He said that fact was that three main Nullahs of Karachi, Gujjar Nullah, Mehmoodabad Nullah and Orangi Nullah, were got cleaned by the federal government of PTI. He said it was responsibility of the Sindh government to get cleanesed 40 Nullahs of KMC and 500 Nullahs of DMCs.

He said presently, those Nullahs are filled with garbage and in case of expected urban flooding, the megacity could witness the worst situation. He said the ministers only had paid visits and they wanted corruption in rain emergency funds.

He said that the Sindh government had still not paid compensation to the affectees of Gujjar Nullah. He said the PTI government had issued Rs34 billion and work on Gujjar Nullah should have been completed by June. He said the Sindh government had no concerns about the sufferings of people as it wanted corruption even in Zakat funds.

He said that the Sindh government believed that ‘when there is more rain, there is more water’. He said the Karachi might witness the same situation now. He said Bilawal Zardari and Murad Ali Shah along with their ministers should have present at those Nullahs and faced tough questions of citizens.

Addressing the chief minister, he said ‘only tall claims do not work and it needs practical work’. He demanded that urgent steps should be taken to save the Karachiites from drowning into rainwater.