Food Festival in Benazir Bhutto Park – An Overt Violation of Law

On May 19, 2017, the Infocus published a post on these pages pointing out at the holding of a commercial festival in Khulfa e Rashdeen Park at 13-D, Gulshan e Iqbal and stated that it was a violation of law by DMC East. While strong apprehensions were also raised in the post that “if this (violation) would (not) become a future trend”. That festival badly ruined the park infrastructure, greenery and serenity at the end of the day so badly that DMC East hasn’t yet recovered that all till this date.

However, above apprehensions seems to be turning into realities. Again, civic rules are being violated and an event of festivity “Karachi Eat Food Festival” is being arranged from January 12 to 14, 2017 in the city’ one of the most prestigious public place the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park, located in Clifton, DMC South. Previous two editions of the event had also been arranged at Frere Hall alongside Bagh e Jinnah, which attracted massive crowd for fun and food activities, leading the festival to become an annual event. There is no doubt the festival is a popular and successful addition on the metropolitan recreational landscape but holding it in a public park have consequences too.

That’s the reason which has led many concerned bodies including the National Forum for Environment and Health (NFEH) to ask the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) not to allow a central public park to host any food festival. The Forum rightly opined in a press conference that holding such commercial event in pubic park violates the very basic purpose for which the urban open spaces are meant for. “The public parks are like essential public open spaces in a city like Karachi and in no way these spaces should be used to host a commercial activity, which has every potential to damage the very basic components and essentials of a park” it argues.

Parks are important for people, especially the urban communities, to stay fit and sane. Apart from offering recreational pleasure to the city’ dwellers, parks are places where people are kept in touch with nature. That’s the basic and foremost purpose of any park which is prioritized and upheld world over. Any act that disrupts this basic purpose should be discouraged therefore.     

Furthermore the Supreme Court of Pakistan already gave a ruling in 2010 against holding commercial activities in public parks and declared it violation of Article 26 of Constitution of Pakistan. The ruling stated that parks are purpose of providing facilities, charm and temptation to general public in good faith and must not be used for any commercial activity.

It is also important to mention that millions of rupees are spent each year for the maintenance of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park -- built on 47 acres of land -- but after holding such commercial activities the very essence of park in terms of aesthetic and horticultural aspects will be severely deteriorated and all public spending for maintenance will go in vain. And, in current scenario this probable deterioration would be irreparable because city’ municipal authorities don’t have sufficient funds to repair and renovate the beauty and infrastructure of the park again.

Therefore, the NFEH has solid reason that the food festival has every potential to damage the very basic components and essentials of Park. However, it is also noteworthy that Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park is no longer in the custody of KMC right now as in May 2017 on the directives of Sindh Local Government, the Karachi Development Authority took over the charge of the park.

Hope sanity prevails in governmental corridors.

By 

Editorial, Infocus

2017; A Civic Review of Karachi

For the 3rd consecutive year Karachi has been named among the top 10 worst cities of the world, that summarises the plight of socio-civics and environment of the city in 2017. The city needed special attention in terms of new administrative order, economic development, local policing, coherency among all civic bodies and environment management to save it from crisis-ridden turmoil but unfortunately all these issues remained absolutely unaddressed in this year.

The Economist Intelligence Unit – the research and analysis division of The Economist Group – in this year’ report has ranked Karachi at 134th in the list of 140 cities. The ranking was devised according to qualitative and quantitative factors where the city was found lagging behind in the categories of stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure.

Throughout the year Karachi remained in a state of civic inertia, as the City Mayor Waseem Akhtar as usually complained his inability to deliver citing lack of required financial and administrative powers while the Sindh Local Government remained busy more in spending the civic and metropolitan funds in latent structures and procurements rather initiating schemes to restructure Karachi as a planned megacity based on sustainable and systematic terms as well as smart developmental footings.     

Climate Change Impacts

The growing impacts of Climate Change also worsened the already fragile environs which ultimately added further miseries into the socio-civic fabric of the city. That is the reason when in April severe heat waves hit the southern Pakistan, Karachi recorded the highest temperature with a sizzling 41.5 degree centigrade. Because of uneven climate changing the city witnessed this year three spell of rainfall. The first in the mid of January which claimed 6 lives and with lowest temperature recorded at 10 Degree Centigrade. The monsoon rainfall flooded the entire city and all municipal and civic bodies including KMC and Cantonments were found incapable to cater that crisis-ridden situation, which claimed 23 lives in a week. Although, the KMC in order to avert this situation had earlier held extensive drive of cleaning storm water drains, specially Nehr Khayyam in March and widening of Gujjar Nallah by removing the alongside encroachments. Despite, it took weeks for KMC to dewatering it from the metropolis. The third spell of rain arrived in the mid of December which was very untimely and unexpected, however that day the city’ temperature fell to 10 degrees yet again.

Health Hazards

During the mid of the year serious Chikungunya virus broke out in Karachi -- especially in the Malir district-- which even compelled the World Health Organisation to send a medical team to control the horrors of outbreak. According to official figure around 4400 people affected by this virus in Sindh out of which more than 3700 resides only in Karachi. It was also disclosed in 2017, that last year the same outbreak claimed 405 lives in the province.

The fragilities of Karachi’ civic conditions further exposed when in a beach tragedy 12 people of a single family drowned at Hawks bay without getting any help from life guards on the spot. Also, 7 people died when a building collapsed in Liaquatabad. Irregular construction of the building can be blamed for these unwarranted deaths, however it is a fact that this irregularity in the shapes of flat-portions and bifurcation on smaller plots still is in regular practice, deliberately unchecked and even regularized by the KDA.        

Judiciary as Savior

However, the 2017 saw the superior judiciary with Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar and other apex courts to act as rescue and savior of the citizens, who has taken up cases of basic amenities particularly in health, water, sanitation and environment sectors. The apex courts constituted a judicial commission to make inspections of negligence in protecting fresh water sources, the environment and marine life. The commission exposed corrupt practices in all water and sanitation schemes besides severe pollution in water resources, absence of sewerage disposals and gross solid waste mismanagement.

Another worrying disclosure made in the court was 90% of water supplied in Karachi is unfit for human consumption due to contamination. It was revealed in a report prepared by Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources after analysis of 118 drinking water samples. In another hearing the apex court directed the Sindh government to work on effluent treatment plants and coordinate with the Federal government in controlling the marine pollution caused by dumping of 460 million gallons of toxic untreated industrial effluent and domestic waste each day in the Arabia sea. The Supreme Court also grilled the Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah and asked him to give a timeframe for the completion of public schemes relating to water and sanitation to the apex court.   

On November 30 the Supreme court in another case also ordered the KDA and KMC for removal of all sorts of encroachments from the amenity plots within a deadline of two months. The order was given when the KDA revealed in a report that 35,000 amenity plots were under encroachments in the city. The anti-encroachment drive is going on across the city.

In another judgement Supreme Court imposed a banned in an order on March 6 on issuance of approvals for high-rise and multi-storeys projects in the city. In compliance to the order the Sindh Building Control Authority issued a notification on May 26, imposing a complete ban on the construction of buildings beyond ground-plus-two-storeys in Karachi region forthwith.

Taking notice against encroachments, another bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed took serious exception to the practice of renting out spaces in public parks and roads by the KMC authorities and in their judgment ordered to remove all encroachments and cabin shops from public parks and amenity plots across the city.

Wastes’ Politics

Despite all this judicial activism, traffic jam, garbage mismanagement and street crimes were rampant and top unresolved civic problems of the city in 2017. The 100-Day Cleanness Drive launched by the City Mayor ended miserably on March 10, 2017 without any success. On the other hand, amending the SLGO 2013 the Sindh Government transferred the responsibility of metropolitan’ solid waste from KMC to Sindh Solid Waste Management Board. The Board then outsourced this job to a Chinese firm Changyi Kangjie Sanitation Engineering Company Limited in the districts of Malir and South, besides importing hundreds of tricycle vehicles, handcarts, other machineries and thousands of garbage bins in the city. These colourful garbage bins can be seen in each district at sixes and sevens. However, these developments haven’t bore fruits and it is witnessed that rather clearing and transferring garbage to the landfill sites, it is dumped in drains, sea or burnt on the spot. In fact, solid waste was the key civic issue in 2017, which remained badly managed and unattended in many cases.  A petition is already in court regarding dissolution of Solid Waste Management Board by Mayor Karachi. 

Commutation Woes

Regular traffic jam has also kept the city environs extremely horrible, hectic and burdensome this year. Despite identifying damaged roads, encroachments, regular sewage fuss, absence of parking spaces, under-construction developments, heavy traffic movement in day time, peak hours rush, regular rise in vehicles and absence of Mass Transit Program as main causes of jamming, it seems the issue will remain unresolved. The Karachi Circular Railway, which had to be begun on Dec 25, as pledged by the CM, has been dumped again despite removing large chunk of encroachments on Circular Railway tracks.

Similarly, the Bus Rapid Transit System was also kicked off with Green Line in December, however it is still under construction and this lane has been extended further from Guru Mandir to Jama Cloth Market, as reported. Other segments of this Federal government project like Blue Line, Yellow Line, Red Line, etc are also either under construction or in pre-construction phase. Important projects of federal government like K-IV and S-III are still in development stages. Though, the M-9 -- Motorway between Karachi and Hyderabad -- was inaugurated by former Prime Minister in February but factually it is incomplete till this date, but motorway toll money has sizably been increased for travelling on M-9 which is still under-construction on BOT basis.   

The Sindh Government also carried out several development projects in the city under Local Government’ Karachi Package, though a number of these schemes were related to revamping, widening and renovating of major roads like Shahra e Faisal and University Road. However, opening of Underpasses like at Drigh Road, Nazimabad Chorangi and flyover at Korangi Crossing are important developments as far as commutation is concerned in Karachi.

Plight of Public Parks

The Jahangir Park was opened for public after renovation by Sindh Government in November. However, situation of other public parks in the city like Bagh e Jinnah, Burns Garden, Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park, Beach Park and almost all community parks across the city are in state of badly deplorable conditions or encroached partially or completely. Controversy, however, raised over Bagh Ibn e Qasim, when in a notification on March 30 Sindh government handed the park’ maintenance over to a private party, which was resisted by the City Mayor and civil society. In the end the KMC won the battle and is working on its restoration and improvement -- though park is shut down for general public.

This tug of war between KMC and Sindh government over metropolis’ civic and municipal issues hasn’t ended yet, in fact it enters in 2018. Administrative heads of both institutions blame each other for ruination of city, which is heading towards unmanageable and unlivable with each passing day because of insincerity of authorities. And, that ruination is continued and still unattended. As an example, when some 5000 full trees were rooted out alongside Super Highway of Karachi region for the construction of M-9, neither the Chief Minister Sindh nor Mayor Karachi voiced against this disaster.       

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Editorial, Infocus      

   

Illegal Constructions have Encroached Karachi at large

Way back in 2015 a few hundred residents of Moon Garden in Gulistan e Jauhar spent two nights in open during chilling winters as protest when they were forced evacuation from their homes. As their flat site had been termed illegal by the Sindh High Court, allotments of apartments were declared malicious and the Court ordered the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to demolish the building. The protesting residents blamed the Sindh government and their builder responsible for the crime, as the builder not only built more storeys than permitted by the law but also on a land that belonged to Pakistan Railways.

That protest got widespread coverage across the country persuading the Supreme Court of Pakistan to annul the verdict of Sindh High Court and fined the builder of Rs. 50 million which the builder willingly agreed to pay for violating the law. Although, the Supreme Court saved the residents from going homeless but this judgment also raised eyebrows as it was meant to set a bitter precedent of regularization of illegal construction on amenity lands by paying some financial penalties.

 If at that time the Supreme Court’ verdict came as to demolish illegal construction along with financially compensate the residents or providing homes of equivalent standard or even sentence of the builder and authorities involved in the scam, it would have been much better which outright discouraged illegal construction in the city. But with this verdict the fear of punishment was vanished among greedy builders, who sped up their illegal constructions, china-cuttings and land-grabbing across the Karachi city.

Today, the consequences of that judgment are reflecting again. As the issue of illegal construction has resurfaced and an ongoing demolition drive by the KDA on the orders of Supreme Court is a subject of civic concern among the Karachites. The Supreme Court had on Nov 30, 2017 directed the KDA and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to clear 35,000 amenity plots of the city of encroachments within two months. The SC’s two-member bench headed by the Justice Gulzar Ahmed issued directives to the KDA and the KMC on the petition of a civilian. Thus, the estate and enforcement department of the KDA is, under its ongoing operation, demolishing various structures including marriage halls and residential building raised illegally on amenity plots in areas like Korangi, F.B. Ara, Gulshan e Iqbal, Gulistan e Jauhar, North Nazimabad, PIB Colony, Laiquatabad, Nazimabad and Saddar. In a statement Sindh Local Government Minister has asserted that in line with the Supreme Court directives, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and Karachi Development Authority would continue their anti-encroachment drive on amenity plots “till all the illegal constructions are razed to the ground.”

On the other hand, the demolition of structures that included residential facilities purchased by hundreds of Karachites in ignorance of the fact that those buildings were raised illegally attracted serious reactions from MQM-Pakistan which termed it a “politically motivated” drive by Sindh Government. The KMC’ City Council also passed unanimous resolution to comply with the orders of the country’ top court from removing encroachments, but requested consideration for people living on occupied properties.

Housing and accommodations have always been an undomesticated issue in Karachi city. With a population of over 20 million, uncontrolled growth rate and unchecked magnitude of migration from rural and tribal areas, the problem of sheltering is getting worsened with each passing day. That ignited a web of encroachments via unregistered Katchi Abadis throughout metropolitan and also illegal construction by grabbing amenity lands like parks, playgrounds, welfare centres and etc.   

The present Supreme Court judgment must be welcome without doubt but it should have also been accompanied with serious punishments to land grabbers and concerned land authorities. Also, commercial constructions on amenity plots like wedding halls, madarssahs, private schools and private clubs mustn’t be spared but the residential constructions should be reviewed again and alternate shelters for displaced people need to be sought.    

Mayor Waseem Akhtar rightly said encroachments at parks and amenity plots should never be allowed but if the people were to be displaced, they be provided with alternative living spaces with approval of the City Council.  That’s the reason not only protests are continued in affected areas but also the City Council – the elected representative body of the metropolitan -- has requested the apex court to review its decision.

Members of the City Council also questioned the regularization of Katachi Abadis by the Sindh Government. It is estimated there are presently more than 5000 Katachi Abadis, Goth or slum areas in Karachi’ vicinity, while 10 years back their quantity was less than 2000. The Federal Government together with the Sindh Government cannot spare from blame because both have not launched any low cost public housing scheme in Karachi since decades. The prices of land of Karachi is so up today that a poor or even a middleclass family cannot afford now any home of their own here.   

The housing and shelter is a massive problem of the day in Karachi and the governments have no intentions to solve this basic human need. The result -- might be temporary stopped -- but illegal construction will remain in full swing in the city and the poor residents remain the victims of land grabbing mafia in the city.

By

Editorial, Infocus     

Pakistan’s Science-Policy Conference on Climate Change – The First & Foremost Endeavour.

The first Science-Policy Conference on Climate Change organized by the Global Change Impact Studies Centre (GCISC) – a research wing of the Ministry of Climate Change – might serve as the first concrete dialogue in Pakistan where perils of Climate Change were taken seriously at official levels. Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi not only laid down the basic in-hand policies of the government to tackle this menace but also vowed that Pakistan remains committed to playing its role in global efforts for tackling the issue of Climate Change.

The PM seemed steadfast in his speech during inaugural session when stated “Climate Change has become one of the biggest challenges for mankind and has united all international community at one platform for action against its hazards.”

Pakistan ratified the Paris Agreement in 2015 and following the principles therein to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 20%. Investment and international funding in reduction of Climate Change’ effects, however, is important being the global citizens.

Despite having only a 1% of greenhouse footprint, Pakistan is among the top 10 most affected countries on the Global Climate Risk Index (CRI, 2016), and currently faces a number of climate-related challenges, including rising temperatures, unpredictable changes in precipitation patterns, increased frequency and intensity of extreme health events, recurring droughts and floods, groundwater pollution, rising sea levels, potential for heightened conflicts over water rights between riparian regions, increased health risks due to changes in disease vectors, environmental degradation specially of water-related ecosystems, declining agricultural productivity, and governance issue associated with these stresses.

Mentioning the recent prevalence of smog in the Punjab, the PM rightly pointed out it should serve as an eye-opener to be more serious about the issue of environment.

The Science-Policy Conference on Climate Change provides an initial mapping of efforts being undertaken to alleviate the impacts of Climate Change, assessment of knowledge and capacity needs and priorities that better reflect the Pakistani development context, and a stimulating environment with the intention to yield innovative ideas and grounds for implementation.

The PM cited diverse efforts by Pakistan in this regard and told the delegates Pakistan has allocated 8% of its budget to fight the effects of Climate Change. Not only he informed that Pakistan had a zero import of furnace oil and running the related power houses on imported liquified natural gas but expressed confidence that the country will completely phase out furnace oil-based power generation in near future to mitigate oil’s negative fallout on climate. About clean energy he briefed that 50% of primary energy coming from gas and other 20% from hydropower and other resources.

Around 100 scientists from all over the world presented their research findings at the 3-day conference on Climate Change which is the first ever international event on the issue in the country hosted by the GCISC.

Other institutions that collaborate in the endeavor included the US Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies, the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, the University of UTH, the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in South, the Higher Education Commission, the Pakistan Meteorological Department, National Disaster Management Authority and HBS.

The Conference highlights the need for improved climate-related research and information for Pakistan as well as help prepare policy recommendations to address Climate Change challenges affecting the country development, promote coordination among researchers and institutions working on different aspects of climate change in Pakistan and facilitate their collaboration with international scientists and experts engaged in research activities.

Editorial, Infocus.

Let Karachi breathe clean air

A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report reveals that ambient and household air pollution in cities cause a horrible figure of 6.5 million premature deaths every year globally. And, it is an open secret the air quality in Karachi is highly unsatisfactory, if not fully unsafe, because of presence of heavy smoke in the atmosphere and also resulting in rising numbers of serious diseases particularly allergic, respiratory and cardiac illnesses in recent times.

The major ambient or outdoor pollution sources include: vehicles, power generation, building heating system and industrial, agricultural and hospitals’ incinerations. While indoors people are also prone to various polluting technologies and fuels for household cooking, heating, lighting, releasing smoke into the home and leaching pollutants outdoors.

With the city of Lahore severely hit by smog last month and predictable widening of smog horizon in the region, there is an urgency that the authorities of Karachi must give a proper focus in regards to air pollution to save citizens from growing environmental hazards. At present the air in Karachi is largely being polluted by automobile smoke, specially Rickshaws and Buses, industrial emissions, open burning of garbage, house fires and other particles. It is high time the Sindh Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Metropolitan’ health and municipal services departments must act immediately in this regard.

It must not be forgot that last year the WHO in a report ranked Karachi the fifth most polluted city in the world. The report ranked 1600 cities of 91 countries for quality of their air, which is measured for concentrations of particulate matters (PM10 and PM2.5), two major harmful pollutants that can cause serious diseases.

NUMBEO is the world’ largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries, which provides current and timely information on living conditions including cost of living, health, traffic, crime, pollution and etc. According to NUMBEO, Karachi’ present Air pollution level of PM10 and PM2.5 are 290 and 88 respectively which is extremely high as suggest by WHO standards. It also says pollution index of Karachi is 95.65 and Pollution EXP scale is 172.6. 

It is also unfortunate that Karachi is one of the few cities in the world who haven’t have their own air quality index -- a criterion of computing used by government authorities to address to the public about the concentration of pollution in the air. The air quality monitoring exercises of SEPA are erratic and the provincial agency never analysed or documented it’s data to predict future pollution level. The Environmental Monitoring Stations in the city installed at the head office of SEPA in Korangi and Deputy Commissioner, Central’ office in North Nazimabad are dysfunctional and the only environmental monitoring van in the city is longer remained mobile.

Humans health relies on air quality which is also closely linked to earth’ climate and ecosystems globally. The city administration should come up to devise and implement a brief strategy to improve the quality of air before breathing becomes impossible in Karachi.

By

Editorial, Infocus

A Praiseworthy Judgment against Encroachments

The yesterday judgment from the Supreme Court of Pakistan to remove all encroachments and cabin shops from public parks and amenity plots across the city has given food for thoughts to all illicit business establishments. The SC bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed took serious exception to the practice of renting out spaces in public parks and roads by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) authorities.

Infocus in its earlier blog dated March 20, this year pointed out at these "unsolved and unresolved demon" of the metropolis and urban analysts believe the roadside encroachments are the main factor, which has made the Karachi' traffic and environs outright chaotic.

The impacts of these encroachments and their illegitimate space are hazardous. Not only they occupy the roads which cause severe traffic jam and obstacles for pedestrians, but they also badly affect the environment and public health of the area, besides depriving government from a sizable revenue.

Pointing out at the encroachment business in Sadder area, the SC observes "The police station are running on money received from push-cart vendors." Infocus figured out in previous blog " These small business establishments is said to be nearly one lac in number only in Sadder Karachi, which include modular stalls, moving carts, footpath shops, roadside vendors and makeshift markets. Instead of paying any utility and tax charges, they just pay Rs. 150 daily at individual capacity for their space, which become Rs. 45 crore in total in a month, distributed in area police, traffic police and KMC authorities."

Now all hope are on Commissioner, whom the SC has directed to personally supervise the anti-encroachment campaign and submit a compliance report. Whatever be the outcome, that is an outright verdict.

 

By

Editorial, Infocus

Environmental Degradation and Climate Change in Karachi -- With Special Focus on Karachi

Stressing on the need of environmental governance  notable scholar and Climate Change expert Dr. Pervaiz Amir says "Governments must integrate aspects of climate change while designing development projects" to prevent environment from degradation. As a key note speaker of a seminar "Environmental Degradation and Climate Change in Karachi -- With Special Focus on Karachi", he was of the opinion although Pakistan is globally ranked at the 7th among the world' most vulnerable countries in 2017 but as a matter of fact we are at the number one position, because of the size of population and nature of calamities.

The event was organised by Monthly Farozaan and Global Environmental Management System (GEMS) in cooperation with Farozaan Environmental Protection Organisation, Karachi Forum for Climate Change. Various speakers and participants of the seminar shared their opinions and disappointments that all the world nations take awareness of conservation and environment safety as the foremost challenges, however in Pakistan these are lowly prioritised areas before state authorities.     

Dr. Pervaiz vehemently criticises governments' policies of outsourcing public amenity services like solid waste disposal, water supply, etc and says "Outsourcing is a bad strategy as governments can make the sector of water and waste disposal sustainable by themselves."  Citing the consequences of environment degradation, the renowned scholar blamed the forestry and irrigation departments most for deforestation and desertification in the country because of which the span of winter season has been limited to just 35 to 40 days in a year.  

Dr. Pervaiz observed that the population of Karachi alone is bigger than those countries who are above Pakistan in the Economic Intelligence Unit' list of most vulnerable countries and also revealed multiple threats namely droughts, hill storms, tornados, smog, landslides and absence of pristine water, posed to the "badly managed city" in future.

Secretary Environment Sindh Dr. Baqa ullah Unar said in the seminar that as a developing country the provision of basic needs like education, food, jobs and etc remain "much bigger tasks"  before government, therefore alongside government people should also come up to contribute in the improvement of environment by themselves. He adds " SEPA are providing free plants of Coconut and Neem to people for promotion of plantation in Sindh" for that purpose. Citing the contamination of ground water as a big threat Dr. Unar told the audience that various industries owners and business community were not cooperating and working on effluent plants in their premises so the SEPA imposed penalties on them. He further complained that  other departments like Agriculture or Motor vehicle are not working alongside SEPA to prevent environment from degradation. 

Mahmood Khalid the Editor in Chief of Farozaan said Climate Change is arguably more dangerous than terrorism and told the audience that "Through Farozaan we have been creating awareness and solving problems about environment deterioration since 2006, in fact we are the one who have written and produced most on environmental issues in Pakistan."   

While Senator Haseeb Baig expresses "we are sitting on a volcano and no government will come to rescue so we must improve environment by ourselves through plantation and cleanliness habits".

Earlier, Dr Waqar Ahmed from Karachi University Environmental Studies Department, gave a brief overview of Urban Heat Island in Karachi and revealed that very unprecedentedly extreme weather changes have been observed since couple of years in Karachi Heat Index. 

By 

Editorial, Infocus