Karachi: In the past one week, almost 1075 lives have been
lost in Karachi due to a heat wave. It is said to be one of the worst
calamities to hit Pakistan in the last ten years.To add to the misfortune,
there has been no water or electricity in many city areas for the past many
days. People reached hospitals in all sorts of transport and majority returned
with the dead bodies of their loved ones. The city mortuaries are full and
families are running from pillar to post to find a place to keep the remains of
their loved ones in a cool place. The Federal and Sindh government are nowhere
to be seen.And K Electric is least concerned about the plight of its bill
paying consumers.
In between this horrific scenario the Pakistan Army stepped
in and established Heat Wave Relief Camps making doctors, facilities and
medical aid available to the beleaguered citizens of Karachi .Along with this
many people are working with the Rangers in their camps and helping them out.
One of the volunteers said, “Things are so bad that it’s
being hard to manage. The kafan and related items alone costRs8,000, where can
a poor person manage that from? And the grave diggers are asking for anything
from 5,000 to 50,000 on seeing the person who asks for a grave to be dug.”
He continued: “Where are the government and the elected
representatives? When they want votes they are all out to spend money on
advertisements and running campaigns; but now their when the voters are dying
no one is there to help them. In the end it is always the army that steps in.”
Despite all their efforts it was not enough, Karachites came
forward took charge to help. Starting from social media to door to door
collection, to camps, and then reaching the victims they have come forward with
tremendous zeal and saved many lives.
Social media has proven to be the medium to spread the word
for help and donations. The Facebook Mera Karachi Group (MKG) started their
online campaign and from there and spread out in the field. Vaqar, Sabiha Begh,
Imran Ahmed (Founder of MKG), Sheema Ghani and many others from MKG have been
working day and night to reach out to the people.
“MKG’s aim is to change the behavior of the people. We don’t
do anything big rather we start from small things. This will make us more
responsible citizens instead of always blaming the government ,” Vaqar said.
“Karachi has been hit with a heat wave that was least
expected and people were not prepared for it. No one is aware about climate
change and no precautionary measures are being taken to prevent it in future,”
he added.
“For the time being we are not taking money from people,
instead we ask then for things that can be distributed. People have brought in
Infusion kits, ORS, water bottles, towels and some medicines. Apart from this
we are collecting kafanstoo,” Vaqarsaid when asked about donations and efforts.
Apart from these people in Karachi , Mona Kazim is working
from the US.She is collecting donations from people in the States and sending
it to the local ElajTrust. Mehdi, a social activist and student, told us that
Elaj Trust is being run by activist JibranNasir and his colleagues. On the
visit of the CM Sindhto Jinnah Hospital JibranNasir confronted him and
questioned him on accountability of the budget, to which CM had no reply.
Elaj Trust has “adopted” ward 5 and 6 of Jinnah Hospital and
the patients in these wards will be looked after throughoutRamadan.Eighteen
standing type room ACs have been installed, medical facilities, water and ORS
is available,and janitors hired to keep the wards clean.”
He told that a girl who had brought her unconscious mother
to the hospital suffering from heat exhaustion, collapsed due to the oppressive
heat while sponging he mother.
The resilience and sheer determination to stand up in the
face of adversity which has long been the forte of the people of Pakistan is
visible in the citizens of Karachi in this crisis.Conspicuous by its absence
once again is the hand that should be leading the relief and rehabilitation
effort, the seat of governance a mere 4 kilometers from the Jinnah Hospital
from where emanates not encouragement and help, but an ominous silence.
This article has been published in The Nation on 28th June 2015
