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Karachi Mayor Urges Against Politicising Manhole Death After Child Drowns
A day after an 8-year-old boy drowned in an uncovered manhole in Karachi’s Mehran Town, Mayor Murtaza Wahab urged restraint, saying the tragedy should not be politicised as the cover had reportedly been removed and placed aside.
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by Muhammad Hashir
2025-12-30
Karachi Mayor Urges Against Politicising Manhole Death After Child Drowns

A day after an eight-year-old boy lost his life after falling into an uncovered manhole in Karachi’s Mehran Town, Mayor Murtaza Wahab on Tuesday urged the public and political parties not to politicise the tragedy, stating that the manhole cover had reportedly been removed and placed on the side.

According to data released by the Edhi Foundation, at least 27 people have died across Karachi in 2025 after falling into open manholes and drains, including eight children, highlighting the growing civic safety crisis in the metropolis.

The victim, identified as Dilbar, was playing outside his residence with other children when he fell into the open sewer, Korangi Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Fida Husain Janwari told Dawn.

Addressing the media, Mayor Wahab responded to pointed questions regarding missing manhole covers, particularly following Dilbar’s death and reports of uncovered manholes on II Chundrigar Road. He said preliminary reports from local residents and information shared by the child’s family indicated that the manhole was not uncovered permanently but that its cover had been removed and placed nearby.

“The reports I have so far received from locals, and I am in touch with the child’s family, indicate that it was not that there was no cover at all, but that it had been removed and placed on the side,” Wahab said.

Commenting on the heated nature of the criticism, the mayor said such questions often go viral on social media, shifting the focus away from the real issue. “Unfortunately, that is the real problem,” he remarked, stressing that the matter should not be viewed through a political lens.

Wahab said he had immediately checked whether the additional Rs100,000 announced for the relevant Union Council had been disbursed, confirming that the funds were released. “We did whatever was in our capacity,” he maintained, adding that deliberate removal or theft of covers was a serious concern beyond political blame games.

Referring to PTI leader Alamgir Khan’s ‘Fix It’ campaign, the mayor claimed that manhole covers installed on II Chundrigar Road had later gone missing. “So did I remove the covers?” he asked, asserting that theft was the likely cause.

The incident follows another tragic case earlier this month when the body of a three-year-old boy, Ibrahim, who fell into an open manhole in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, was recovered after more than 12 hours.

In the aftermath of these tragedies, political parties staged protests, demanded the mayor’s resignation, and filed petitions seeking action against city officials. The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has since increased the budget for 246 union committees to exclusively handle maintenance of manhole covers and streetlights across the city.
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