KARACHI: The ugly shape that Karachi was in after the heavy rains on Aug 11 and 12, to be honest, didn’t surprise Karachiites. Yes, the electrocution fatalities and the difficulty with which (citizens’) vehicles moved across the flooded roads was infuriating, to say the least; but they have been facing this horrid situation for a long time. There is nothing novel about it. Yes, the fact that a couple of weeks before that a similar state of affairs had compelled the media to focus on the Sindh and city governments’ ineptitude to deal with the crisis where the two played a blame game, not anticipating another round of torrential downpour is something which goes to show that perhaps both are not equipped to handle the issue of keeping an intractably expanding city spick and span.

Now one shall leave this debate for experts. There is a more significant issue to mull over here. Karachi has a big number of philanthropists and well-meaning individuals who do charitable work on a regular basis, especially on religious occasions. For a better understanding of the argument, let’s call them the ‘private sector’. They have a huge role to play in making the city’s underprivileged and voiceless feel important. Where does that sector vanish when crises of larger proportions, such as the havoc caused by monsoons, hit their beloved city? One shouldn’t be harsh on them, so let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say it’s difficult for that sector because they don’t work in an organised fashion. This is something that they could think about, though.

The biggest surprise relates to some organised groups that have emerged over the last decade or so. They are influential, well-heeled and wish to reclaim Karachi’s historic past. Certainly, what they are doing or intend to do is well-intentioned and without any vested interests. After all, it takes time and courage to plan to relive the glory of a town whose ‘documented’ history goes back not even 200 years (Charles Napier conquered Sindh in the early 1840s and from then on Karachi became the cynosure of British and hence world attention).

Why can’t those who want to restore Karachi’s colonial buildings, refurbish its old neighbourhoods concentrated in district South, arrange walks through the Saddar region to familiarise people, especially foreigners, with its splendid architecture underlining it is in a dire need of preservation and realign the city’s indigenous populations to contemporary times come forward in difficult times in order to alleviate Karachiites’ misery? There is more glory in helping people improve their present than rejig their past. These influential groups have traction in the media and more often than not get things done because they are associated with a wide range of important professions — architecture, business, medicine, academia and engineering — that perhaps can help the city administrators come up with viable and practicable solutions to the problems faced by the capital of Sindh.

It is not easy, make no mistake, because to alleviate people’s misery means to not just reshape district South but to work in localities as far and wide as Landhi, North Karachi, Ancholi, Sohrab Goth, Sakhi Hasan, Banaras, Pehalwan Goth, Mehmoodabad, Ahsanabad, etc which, when the rains came down with ferocious velocity on Aug 12, were inundated with water.

Residents of these neighbourhoods hardly expect governments to come to their rescue. Governments in our country have seldom kept their promises or proved competent (which doesn’t mean that they should not try and pull their socks up). It’s the people of Karachi who always come out of their comfort zones to help other people.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2019