Karachi water shortage: JI announces protest outside Sindh Assembly

KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) announced on Tuesday a protest outside Sindh Assembly against the worsening water shortage in Karachi, ARY News reported.

Addressing a press conference, JI Karachi chief Munem Zafar criticized both the federal and Sindh governments for neglecting Karachi in their budgets 2025-26.

“There is nothing allocated specifically for Karachi in Rs3.4 trillion budget. Only Rs165 billion has been allocated for the local government, which is insufficient,” he said.

He further highlighted that the long-awaited K-IV water supply project remains stalled after 22 years, existing only on paper.

“The cost of the K-IV project has now risen from Rs 126 billion to Rs 160 billion, yet only Rs 3.2 billion has been allocated this year instead of Rs40 billion, which is practically an attempt to shelve the project,” Munem Zafar remarked.

JI chief accused the PPP and Sindh government of playing both sides politically, despite being part of the federal government.

Munem Zafar announced a protest outside Sindh Assembly on June 21, 2025 at 5:00pm, saying that the struggle for resolving Karachi’s water crisis will continue. He called on Karachi residents to join the protest.

Earlier, a report of ARY News delved into the Karachi water crisis said that Karachi gets about only half the water it requires. Out of that, one-third either gets stolen, thanks to alleged but notorious hydrant and/or tanker mafia, or is wasted owing to dilapidated and dated pipelines that have not been repaired/replaced.