In PS-106, ‘killer’ power woes, teeming garbage dumps and negligent leaders

Karachi: Waqas Ahmed Ansari, a resident of Sikandrabad, a neighbourhood of Liaquatabad falling in the PS-106 constituency, has been visiting offices of the K-Electric for the last four months.

He fears that the heatwave this summer will claim many lives in his area like it did last year. Ansari’s grandfather, Rafiq Ahmed Ansari, was among them.

 “I have been visiting different KE offices but none of the officials seem willing to address our grievances.”

Ansari, who recently graduated from the NED University, said KE officials were sending him from one office to another, but neither working on his complaint, nor giving an explanation.

The officials at the KE’s Azizabad integrated business centre sent him to the one in FB Area, where the manager told him to visit the power utility’s headquarters in DHA.

When he went to the headquarters, the officials there advised him to take his case to the KE office in North Nazimabad.

“At the North Nazimabad office, I met the director who bluntly refused to take any action after listening to my complaint,” he said.

Ansari has been asking the KE to exempt his home and those of others, who paid their bills regularly and were not using illegal connections (kundas), from power outages in his neighbourhood.

“The KE’s argument that it would subject all residents of my area to power outages because of illegal connections is totally irrational. Who is stopping the KE from removing these illegal connections?”

Ansari is a member of big joint family with limited financial resources and is worried about his grandmother who is suffering from different ailments.

As the family is unable to afford an alternate energy source, all they could do is arrange a rechargeable fan, which also runs out of energy because of prolonged power cuts in the area.

“Along with the announced power outages of seven and half hours a day, the unannounced ones at night have turned our lives into hell.”

‘This is my kunda’

As one moves into the narrow streets of Sikandrabad, a stronghold of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, illegal connections stand out on electric poles with empty bottles and different coloured cloths tied to them to mark their “ownership”.

“Everyone can see these [illegal] connections. Only K-electric officials are visually impaired,” said Zafar Bandhani, the general secretary of the Rajput Bandhani Welfare Association Liaquatabad.

Sitting along with other members of the association in the area, he held the KE responsible for the loss of lives in the area during the last heatwave.

“One after another, we were listening to news of people dying every day during the last heatwave.  The static from loudspeaker of mosque was immediately considered the trumpet of death, announcing the death of a resident of the area.”

He recalled that most victims were elderly people, along with a few children.

However, his association members also talked about the encroachments set up by residents in the area, which have any left room for walking in some of the streets, leaving no space for ventilation.

“Some streets have been filled to their capacity with houses facing each other at a narrow gap. Many elderly people face a miserable situation because of the absence of any space for ventilation. It further worsened the situation during the last heatwave,” said Muhammad Shahid, the joint secretary of the association.

The association members and residents of the area also seemed disappointed with the MQM, complaining that the candidate of the party did not come to the narrow streets of the area to look at the problems of the residents.

“We are expecting a low voter turnout in the constituency. It would communicate the disappointment of the MQM voters,” said Ahmed Husain, a resident of the constituency.

“The party is fighting within. The basic problems of the constituency are not important for the party.”

However, a number of voters in the constituency, which include parts of Azizabad, Liaquatabad, and FB Area, consider the MQM the only option to vote, arguing that it is the only party to somehow stand for their rights and problems.

“The voters feel a sense of alienation when it comes to the candidates of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and the Pakistan People’s Party as they are never seen in the areas, let alone our narrow streets of the densely populated areas,” said Adeel Tariq, a resident of the constituency.

Garbage galore

The residents of Sikandarbad and its neighbourhoods are also fed up of the foul smell emanating from garbage dumps.

“The garbage often blocks many streets to their dead ends and garbage lifters of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation seldom visit the area,” said Shahid Haneef, an official of the Rajput Bandhani Welfare Association Liaquatabad.

“Many children and elderly people often fall sick because of garbage dumps. All we can say is that we are helpless and no candidate in the by-election has yet spoken up the issues which are really bothering us.”