“Around 1,287 people died between June 19 and June 29 in Karachi alone, and around 52 in other districts of province,” provincial minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said. He said around 105,000 people suffering from heatstroke were treated at public sector hospital of the city.
The extreme weather has raised several questions about the city’s healthcare system. There was a shortage of ambulances and patients were transported in taxis and rickshaws. At public sector hospitals, most of which are running on charity, were short of stretchers and beds. At many hospitals, patients were lying on the floor. There is no state run morgue in Karachi. The one run by Edhi Foundation ran out of storage space, and had to bury unidentified bodies to make space for new ones. Grave prices shot up, as there have been no government land allotments for graveyards recently.
There is no state run morgue in Karachi
Amid a crisis of water and electricity, political parties and the federal and provincial governments began to blame each other. Imran Ismail, media adviser to the PTI chairman, went as far as announcing he would lodge an FIR against Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and two ministers of his cabinet on charges of murder.
Jamaat-e-Islami emir Senator Sirajul Haq said the PPP and the MQM were both to blame because they had been in government for many years but couldn’t resolve Karachi’s power and water crisis.
In its defense, the PPP blamed the federal government for the mishap. Talking to reporters in Karachi, Sharjeel Memon criticized Karachi Electric, the city’s power distribution company, for not being able to ensure an uninterrupted supply of electricity, for which the federal government was responsible.
People’s Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari returned from Dubai, and visited Karachi Civil Hospital with the chief minister and some members of his cabinet. He met a number of heatstroke patients and told the provincial government to set up special wards to treat victims of the heat wave.
Some residents say the government should have warned them of the extreme weather conditions before the heat wave hit the city. “If the government had informed us about the occurrence of such extreme weather, and advised people not to go out, stay under shades, and drink more water, half of these people could have been saved,” said Salman Ahmed, a resident of Korangi town. He had brought his father, suffering from sunstroke, to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
Although the Meteorological Department in Sindh had forecast rain in the port city, there has been none so far.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif arrived in Karachi for a day-long trip to look at relief efforts. “The incident was unprecedented in the history of Karachi,” he said in a meeting at the Chief Minister’s House, “and all departments negligent in performing their duties must be held accountable in a transparent manner.” He formed a committee to oversee the relief efforts and announced Rs 10 billion from the federal government for the K4 water supply project.
Amar Guriro is a Karachi based journalist
Twitter: @AmarGuriro