When I travel abroad, I often meet expatriates who are eager to share their memories of Karachi. There are conversations drenched in nostalgia. They miss the city they left behind. And because Karachi is my home, where I have lived almost all my life, I enjoy these meetings very much.
But I did not intend to write about Karachi, which lives in the imagination of those who had lived long years of their lives here before finding their new homes in distant lands. In fact, I returned this week from a three week stay in Southern California with our daughter and was ready to share some of my experiences. However, Karachi has rudely intervened and I am distracted.
Incidentally, I was in San Francisco four days before I boarded my flight home from LA, and there was something else about the city that I had come to know quite well. It really made me think of Karachi and the chaotic scenes we witness on its roads.
Well, I saw quite a few driverless taxis on the roads. It seemed so routine that there was no particular buzz around them on street corners. Still, to me it was a magical sight. As I said, I didn’t want to go ahead with it because I’m back in Karachi where a terrifying human tragedy has overwhelmed my senses. I cannot disregard that as the main point of my column.
What is notable here is not just the news that there was an open manhole and a child fell into it and died. Yes, that in itself would cause concern and a human tragedy to touch our hearts. But the circumstances in which this week’s tragedy unfolded are unusual. The CCTV footage of the incident that emerged later is heartbreaking. I have been through the agonizing experience of watching it and have felt the disbelief of what actually happened.
There are reasons why the death of a three-year-old boy after falling into an open manhole has shaken the administration, both locally and provincially. That this response was somewhat delayed requires an explanation. Still, the incident has generated much attention and debate, and media coverage has sought to reflect the rage and grief of the population as a whole.
As I have said, the death of little Ibrahim Nabil has its unique features. First, consider the fact that the incident did not happen in a deserted place, but on the well-lit and rather busy pavement outside a large department store in Gulshan-e-Iqbal. It happened in the presence of the child’s parents and some other people. Ibrahim fell into the manhole and was literally swallowed by it because he could not be immediately rescued from the drain below and was swept away. His body was found in a drain about fifteen hours later in a place very far from the manhole.
I have tried to summarize it, but the details of the episode are complex and not easy to understand. Many questions should be raised. Apparently, the massive BRT construction activity along University Road, which has disrupted traffic on a vital thoroughfare, had complicated matters. But it also ensured that heavy machinery was close at hand.
There is little clarity on how the rescue operation was carried out after people at the scene raised the alarm. Naturally, various agencies were set in motion, and some digging was done along the drain, causing water to flow. A large number of operators must have been involved in this activity.
But look at the irony of Ibrahim’s body being discovered by a teenage boy in the open drain near Sir Syed University. This is how the operation, which had continued overnight, ended on Monday. The boy, said to have been a ‘scavenger’, although this has been disputed by some, was invited to the office of a senior police official and a bouquet was presented to him. This was obviously a photo spread for the media.
In fact, the story of manholes without covers is an old story in Karachi, as it should be in some other South Asian cities. Well covers are usually stolen by drug addicts, and municipal staff are tasked with keeping track of them. I remember doing stories about open wells as a young journalist about fifty years ago.
(As an aside, I remember noticing large iron manhole covers in Manhattan, New York that were made in India by Tata.)
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah suspended five officials, including the assistant commissioner of the area, for their alleged negligence. This action was taken in the wake of KMC and BRT (Red Line) officials denying responsibility after trading allegations of negligence. Also on Wednesday, Mayor Murtaza Wahab visited the deceased child’s family to seek ‘forgiveness’. He took responsibility for Ibrahim’s death and said he would not engage in any blame game.
One aspect of this open well tragedy was the immediate community protest. On Sunday evening, after Ibrahim was lost in the drain, a mob blocked traffic on University Road and the nearby overpass for several hours. This is how the mob reacts when a serious accident occurs. It is in many ways an expression of the people’s helplessness. How should they have behaved as responsible citizens?
More widespread has been the anger and a sense of outrage across civil society. A district court issued notices to the mayor, the manager of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation and a number of other persons about an application to register a case against them. Social media is overflowing with angry comments.
Whatever this tragedy may tell us about the prevailing state of Karachi, its citizens have no option but to plow through a dangerous path that may also have an open manhole.
The author is a senior journalist. He can be found at: [email protected]
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Pakinomist.tv’s editorial policy.
Originally published in The News
