The death toll from a weeklong heat wave in Karachi, Pakistan, has risen to 1,233, officials told the Associated Press Saturday.
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Dawn says that the city’s morgues are struggling to deal with the influx of dead, most of whom were elderly or destitute.
KARACHI: What was meant to be a discussion about torture in Pakistan was turned into a debate on the government’s response – or lack thereof – to the deadly heat wave that has claimed the lives of hundreds of people in the metropolis in the last week, as the audience questioned Sindh Assembly deputy speaker Shehla Raza about the water and electricity crises.
Several people are receiving treatment and emergency has been declared at hospitals in the city.
Tens of thousands of people have been treated for heatstroke in Pakistan’s southern port of Karachi.
Temperatures in Karachi jumped to 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) at the weekend, the hottest since 1981. “They have given us everything, from bottled water to medicines, for the patients”, said an official at a government-run hospital.
Edhi Foundation buried 50 unclaimed bodies on Friday.
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City authorities have dug more than 300 graves in two cemeteries to ease the problem, charging relatives the usual 5,800 rupee (RM212) fee.
Temperatures of 45 C and higher are not uncommon in parts of inland Pakistan, but Karachi normally remains cooler thanks to its coastal location.
“The vortex (low pressure) area that had developed in the North Arabian Sea at first appeared in the upper atmosphere”, he said. Half or more of country’s people live in poverty and Karachi is a center of urban poverty.
The Times reports the group still maintains a strong presence in the mega-city of Karachi, which is where the group’s comments were primarily aimed.
Incidentally, June is also the month (this year) when many Muslims are observing Ramadan and fasting from sunrise to sunset.
Under Pakistani law, it is illegal for Muslims to eat or drink in public during daylight hours in Ramadan.
“The main cause [of the heat wave] is that the sea breeze was cut off, but the southwesterly wind has been flowing since yesterday afternoon and a bit of cloud cover has also come in”, said Farooq Dar of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, based in Islamabad.
“The situation can be overcome if the government starts informing people about precautionary measures through text messages on mobile phones and running ads on radio and television”, he added.
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