‘India landed on moon, while we…’: Pakistani lawmaker highlights lack of amenities in Karachi

Pakistani lawmaker Syed Mustafa Kamal drew a comparison between India’s achievements and the precarious situation in Karachi, by mentioning India’s moon landing mission.

The Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) leader said that while India is landing on the moon, Karachi is making news of children being killed by falling in open gutters.

“Today, the condition in Karachi is that, while the world is going to the moon, children are dying by falling into gutter in Karachi. On the same screen, there is news that India landed on the moon, and just after two seconds, the news is that a child died in an open gutter in Karachi,” Kamal said in his address to the Parliament on Wednesday.

He further highlighted the lack of fresh water in Karachi. The MQM-P leader also said citing a report that there are 70 lakh children in Karachi and over 2.6 crore children in Pakistan, who are not able to go to schools.

“Karachi is the revenue engine of Pakistan. The two seaports operational in Pakistan since its inception, are both in Karachi. We (Karachi) are the gateway to the entire Pakistan, Central Asia to Afghanistan…For 15 years, Karachi was not given even a bit of fresh water. Even the water that came, the tanker mafia hoarded it and sold it to the people of Karachi,” Kamal said.

“We have a total of 48,000 schools, but a new report says that out of that 11,000 are ‘ghost schools’. 70 lakh children in Sindh don’t go to school and a total of 2,62,00,000 children in the country don’t go to school…if we just focus on this, the leaders of the country shouldn’t even get proper sleep,” the Pakistani Parliamentarian added.

In August last year, India’s Chandrayaan-3 lander became the first spacecraft from the country to safely reach the lunar surface in August 2023.

India also became the first country in the world to land on the South Pole of the moon.

Meanwhile, Pakistan — which is grappling with economic distress, high inflation, and mounting debt — is seeking a new loan programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

A team of the global lender is currently in Pakistan to hold talks on the issue. It has urged Islamabad to bring “strong cost-side reforms” to restore the viability of the country’s energy sector, reported ARY News. It has also urged an ‘overhaul’ of its tax system.

Last month, Pakistan completed a short-term USD 3 billion program, that helped stave off sovereign default, however, the government has highlighted the need for a fresh, longer-term program, according to Dawn.