KARACHI: A civil court has given the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation a last chance for filing its comments on twi suits filed by a citizen seeking Rs100 million compensation over the deaths of his wife and an infant son after falling into an open drain.

Muhammad Danish along with his 24-year-old wife Saman and one-month-old son Azlan had fallen in an unfenced and open drain near Qalandria Chowk on the night of July 17 last year during heavy rainfall in the city.

The man and his three-year-old daughter were rescued by locals, video of which had gone viral on the social media causing the Sindh and local government authorities’ severe criticism.

The grieved man had instituted two suits seeking compensation from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Karachi commissioner and District Municipal Corporation (Central) commissioner.

When matter came up before Senior Civil Judge (Central) Muneer Ahmed, the KMC commissioner’s lawyer requested for more time to file a written statement in the case.

The judge directed the counsel to file his written statement on the next date as a last chance and reissued a notice to the DMC commissioner for Jan 20.

In the suits, Danish demanded that the civic authorities pay him damages totalling Rs57.3m on account of his wife Saman’s death and Rs53.2m on account of his son Azlan’s death under the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855.

The plaintiff stated that he could not see the uncovered drain that was overflowing due to heavy rain. Consequently, his wife and son died, he added.

His counsel, Usman Farooq, argued that the unfortunate incident had taken place due to “gross negligence” on part of the civic agencies as they failed to take proper measures to clean and cover the drain before the monsoon season. Before the incident, he claimed the relevant KMC official was informed about open drain, but they took no step to cover it to prevent any untoward incident.

He further argued the tragic incident occurred due to the defendants’ failure to clean, cover and manage sewage drains and take safety and precautionary measures during the monsoon season.

Published in Dawn, january 8th, 2023