ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Wednesday night he had called in the Pakistani military to help in efforts to “clean up” the country’s biggest city and commercial hub of Karachi after torrential rains left nearly a dozen people dead.
Rain battered Karachi this week, leaving residents wading through waist-deep water amid stalled vehicles and trash flowing through the streets.
“I have asked the NDMA Chairman to go to Karachi immediately and start the clean up in the aftermath of the rain,” Khan said in a tweet, referring to the National Disaster Management Authority, which is run by a serving general.
“I have asked the Pak army to also help in cleaning up the city,” the PM added.
The provincial government in Sindh says the modernization of Karachi, including of its drainage and flood management systems, is a major goal to revitalize Pakistan’s largest city and economic powerhouse, long plagued by traffic congestion, poor road infrastructure, transport, water and electricity shortages and rampant crime.
But politicking by local parties and wrangling between different levels of government have stalled Karachi’s growth for decades and continue to hold back development causing even minor spells of rain to leave the city paralysed.
