Mayor, other city officials absent in 'Karachi fly invasion' case

KARACHI: Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar and chairpersons of the six district municipal corporations of the city were absent on Wednesday, when the Sindh High Court (SHC) hearing a petition regarding the swarms of flies in the city, ARY News reported.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Agha Faisal, was hearing the plea.

The high court re-issued notices to the Mayor, Sindh’s Secretary Local Government and other parties to submit their replies over the matter in the next hearing of the case.

The bench instructed parties to ensure submitting their replies in the next hearing of the case.

The bench had earlier directed the parties to submit their replies by September 11 (today).

Petitioner Sameer Samoo’s counsel earlier argued in the court that swarms of flies had made life in the city unbearable.

He said that the flies have multiplied on a large scale as the offal of sacrificial animals hasn’t been picked up and there’s a risk of a large scale outbreak of diseases.

The Sindh government, Karachi mayor and city administration neither making any arrangements to clean the city nor are they spraying insecticides, the lawyer said.

Swarms of flies descended over Pakistan’s commercial capital in record numbers in recent rainy season, adding to the misery of the residents.

Heavy rains inundated the sprawling port city for weeks, overwhelming shoddy drainage system clogged with mountains of uncollected garbage and flooding neighbourhoods with raw sewage.