Karachi [Pakistan], April 13 (ANI): As recent traffic accidents in Pakistan's Karachi caused angry mobs to target heavy vehicles responsible for them, Awami National Party (ANP) Sindh Chapter President Shahi Sayed, along with MQM, said that the ongoing issues in the city, including road mishaps, were an administrative failure and not the product of ethnic issues, Dawn reported.

In recent times, Karachi has seen a rise in traffic accidents, particularly involving dumpers and water tankers -- which claimed the lives of nearly 500 people and injured 4,879 in 2024, according to hospital data.

While addressing a press conference in Karachi along with MQM-P Chairman Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui on Saturday, the ANP chapter Shahi Sayed stated that people are concerned about how they can make both ends meet due to rising inflation, Dawn reported.

Expressing concern over unemployment, he said, 'Engineers with degrees are unable to get jobs and they have to feed their families and pay bills.' He emphasised, 'I want to tell the country not to look at Karachi as a city, I urge them to look at it as Pakistan.'

Sayed said, 'Punjab and Balochistan are all here. Karachi has such strength that if we come together and operate without corruption, we can grow 10 times stronger.' He noted that there is no shortage of anything other than political strength and will.

He stated that he wanted to speak to the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) regarding 'discrimination and tanker mafias' troubling the city. He said, 'We have issues with traffic accidents. Instead of drawing guns, we need to simply condemn the accidents and take legal action.'

Sayed said, 'We appeal to the people to not act on emotion and remember that this is an administrative issue. We must make demands from the government through proper channels.' He said, 'These are not ethnic issues but administrative failures.'

Siddiqui called MQM the representative of the biggest ethnic group in Karachi, noting that they aim to represent all ethnic groups in the future. He said, 'It is our biggest responsibility to ensure that conditions in the city do not go back to the way they were.'

He noted Sayed's role in Karachi and that he has been part of MQM's programmes and is aware of the suffering of the people of Karachi, Dawn reported.

Siddiqui said, 'For the last 25 years, the quota system in Sindh has played the biggest role in ruining the city.' He added, 'There have been no jobs or places at educational institutions allocated in Sindh's urban areas due to quotas.'

On Wednesday, nine dumpers and water tankers were set on fire by angry mobs in Karachi near the main road leading to 4-K Chowrangi after a heavy vehicle hit a bike rider, injuring him in the North Karachi area.

On Tuesday, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah directed the police and transport authorities in Karachi to carry out random drug tests on heavy vehicle drivers to ensure safe and responsible driving.

Rights activists and members of civil society have said that the rising number of accidents in the city and the poor state of traffic law enforcement breach human rights, which the state has not been able to protect, Dawn reported.

Meanwhile, police said a four-year-old boy was killed in an accident, involving a heavy vehicle in Karachi on Saturday. Speaking to Dawn, Baldia police Station House Officer (SHO) Imran Saad said that the boy was playing on a road in Abidabad when a water tanker ran over and killed him.

SHO Saad stated that the driver managed to flee from the site of the incident while the water tanker was confiscated. He further said that people were outraged over the accident, and attempted to damage the tanker. However, the police stopped the people from making such a move. (ANI)