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Thursday April 25, 2024

The state of Karachi

During my last visit to Karachi, I had a chance to pass through the interior of this mega city. The thing that intrigued me most was hordes of people, some of them even above 60 years old, sitting idly along roadsides with implements in their hands, waiting for someone to

By our correspondents
February 26, 2015
During my last visit to Karachi, I had a chance to pass through the interior of this mega city. The thing that intrigued me most was hordes of people, some of them even above 60 years old, sitting idly along roadsides with implements in their hands, waiting for someone to hire them as mason, painter or plumber.
If the government wants to eradicate joblessness, it can get all these people employed on simple-to-operate machines that manufacture daily-use consumer items and do not require any special skills to operate them. The people producing these goods can be paid at the end of the day. Another thing that intrigues me is the state of cleanliness in the city. Even posh areas have not been spared. Nobody bothers to collect garbage. And, once this garbage has been collected, it is dumped in landfills outside the city and burnt, producing poisonous gases. Hospital waste is a major contributor to such gases. If the collection of garbage is properly organised and this waste is taken to an incinerator and burnt the city can be spared of air pollution.
Air-Cdre (r) Azfar A Khan
Rawalpindi