LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami emir Senator Sirajul Haq has expressed deep grief and concern at the large-scale deaths in Karachi due to heat and held the government’s “total incompetence” and “mismanagement” responsible for the tragedy.

A press release quoted him as lamenting here on Thursday that the government was trying to satisfy the public simply through superficial measures.

Had the government not wasted billions of rupees on the advertisements in the print and electronic media about its so-called achievements and had instead spent the funds on power generation loadshedding could have been controlled to a great extent.

He said thousands of poor people were dying due to scorching heat but the rulers were least concerned as their priorities were quite different.

Says govt should have given priority to power projects

He said the government should have given top priority to electricity generation projects and completed these on a war footing to save the masses from the onslaught of loadshedding. However, he alleged that the rulers were not serious in solving the energy crisis and it seemed unlikely that the government would be able to overcome it during its term.

Senator Haq said the political parties which had been taking the MQM as their partner in the government during the last three decades and providing it an opportunity to continue with its alleged crimes were also in the dock today.

“Thousands of innocent people were gunned down in Karachi during the last 30 years simply because the federal and provincial governments had given over the port city and mini Pakistan to the target killers, extortionists and thugs as a strategy and policy of reconciliation.”

He said if the BBC report was false, the MQM should approach the court and prove its innocence.

The JI leader said it was unfortunate that the national security institutions were fully in the know of the affairs but no serious steps were taken to check the bloodletting and the deadly game went on under India’s full patronage. He said the action against the criminals should have been stepped up after Saulat Mirza’s revelations.

The JI chief said the charges of the MQM receiving training and arms from India were not new as dozens of people hauled up by the Rangers had already confessed to receiving terrorist training from Indians. He said this is high time that the government moved the International Court of Justice against India and apprised the body of New Delhi’s conspiracies to destabilise Pakistan.

AWP: The Awami Workers’ Party (AWP) held a demonstration outside the press club to condemn federal and Sindh governments for their alleged negligence that, what it says, contributed to the loss of hundreds of lives from the ongoing heatwave in Karachi.

The party said death toll from the heatwave had now reportedly crossed 1,000 and there were no signs that further loss could be avoided. It said the ruling parties could not escape responsibility for the tragedy by explaining it as a natural or unavoidable occurrence.

It said the loss of lives was a direct result of poor governance practices in the past and added that incumbent federal and provincial administrations were continuing with the privatisation of basic public services like water and electricity.

AWP general secretary Farooq Tariq said the government had sown the seeds of the tragedy decades ago with the transfer of Karachi’s electricity supply infrastructure to a private company. “Water, electricity and other basic amenities are human rights. There is no reason why the state should privatise them,” he said.

AWP Lahore general secretary Shazia Khan said Sindh and Karachi city governments had failed to manage rescue and relief efforts.

Khan said the public health infrastructure such as emergency wards at major teaching hospitals, ambulance service and mortuaries in Karachi were unable to cope with the scale of the tragedy.

She said the deaths had exposed the absolute lack of planning and vision on part of the government high-ups.

Later, Ms Khan presented a set of demands which included: re-nationalisation of the K-Electric and an immediate halt to plans for privatisation of electricity distribution infrastructure in other cities; provision of potable water to Karachi residents, heatwave cold storages and public health facilities to those suffering from heat-related illnesses on a priority basis and Rs1 million compensation for the families of people who lost their lives.

Published in Dawn June 26th, 2015

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