NIPA Tragedy: Mayor admitting negligence seeks apology from Ibrahim's family

Karachi: Following a huge protest and public outrage over the death of three-year-old Ibrahim, who fell into an open manhole near NIPA, Mayor Karachi Murtaza Wahab has apologized to the child’s parents and family, ARY News reported.

Holding a press conference after visiting the family, the Mayor said he sought an apology from Ibrahim’s family without engaging in a blame game.

Ibrahim’s family, in turn, expressed the hope that such an incident should not happen to any other child.

Mayor Wahab stated that he apologized on behalf of the administration and the government. He also informed the family about the details of the meeting chaired by Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah.

The Mayor Karachi  confirmed that an engineer of the Water Corporation, a senior director of the KMC, the Assistant Commissioner, and the Mukhtiar Kar have been suspended, and the suspension of the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) East and the Deputy Commissioner (DC) East is currently underway.

Murtaza Wahab said that a precedent is being set to prevent such incidents in the future, adding that the initial response to the tragedy was not up to the expected standard.

He emphasized that the government wants to learn from its faults and mistakes and avoid them in the future.

The Mayor admitted that he could not be successful as a Mayor if such incidents occur and stressed that the response in such situations should be impressive to avoid damage.

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab has stated that the city has 245,000 manholes, and admitted that covering these manholes is the responsibility of Karachi Water Corporation (KWC), the organisation is also under his authority.

After admitting responsibility, the Mayor, in the very next moment, also placed the responsibility on the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the town administrations, and the elected local representatives.”

“While installing manhole covers is primarily the responsibility of the Water Corporation, nowhere is it written that KMC or town administrations cannot install covers where needed,” Murtaza Wahab noted.

He stressed that “local elected bodies also carry the responsibility of ensuring that sewerage covers are in place,” adding that it is inappropriate for any official to claim they were unable to install a cover.

Murtaza Wahab said that Union Committee (UC) chairmen previously claimed they received only Rs 0.5 million, but the current administration has raised the allocation to Rs 1.2 million, adding that they must now also play their part.

Mayor Karachi claimed that town administrations have access to millions, even billions of rupees, intended specifically to address such civic problems.

“If towns have not worked in the past, then they should start working from today,” the mayor emphasised, adding that constant criticism without action would no longer be acceptable.

Referring to a recent incident, Wahab stated that on 17 November, a truck had damaged a manhole cover, but no one reported it afterwards.