MQM-P urges federal govt to compensate families of Karachi road accident victims

• MQM-P urges action against reckless heavy vehicles.
• Party to approach SC over road safety crisis.
• Siddiqui criticises Sindh govt for negligence.

KARACHI: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) has urged the federal government to provide financial compensation to the families of those who lost their lives in recent road accidents involving heavy vehicles in Karachi, stressing the need for immediate action to address the worsening traffic safety situation in the city.

Speaking at a press conference at the Bahadurabad headquarters of his party on Sunday, The News reported, MQM-P Chairman Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui decried that the Sindh government no longer bore the responsibility of the welfare of the residents of the urban areas of the province.

He said the Supreme Court should take cognisance if the federal and provincial governments failed to pay compensation to the bereaved families of the deceased victims of road accidents in Karachi.

He announced that the MQM-P would move the Supreme Court against frequent road traffic accidents involving heavy vehicles and other excesses being committed against the dwellers of urban Sindh.

He, however, informed media persons that the past petitions filed by the MQM-P to get justice for the inhabitants of urban Sindh had been pending at the superior courts.

He said the situation in Karachi had become tragic before the Eid owing to frequent fatal road traffic accidents.

Dr Siddiqui, who is also the federal education minister, said that earlier innocent lives had been lost in the city at the hands of armed street robbers.

He lamented that operators of heavy vehicles had been acting like a criminal mafia in the city. The Sindh government had failed to come to the rescue of the concerned residents of Karachi who were in serious distress, he maintained.

The MQM-P chief said the security and law and order situation in Karachi would deteriorate to an alarming extent if the authorities failed to take the due corrective measures.

He lamented that the residents of Karachi failed to get the facility of water through lines despite paying exorbitant taxes to the government. He also chided the provincial government for its failure to pay pensions to the retired staffers of the municipal agencies in Karachi.

Dr Siddiqui appealed to philanthropists to come to the support of the residents of Karachi facing grave injustice. He also appealed to concerned citizens not to pay any charges to the purported vendors providing charged parking facilities in the city after the announcement by the provincial government and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation that they had ended collection of parking charges from motorists at the public places.

Dr Siddiqui announced that the MQM-P would observe Eid ul Fitr with simplicity owing to recent fatal road traffic accidents in Karachi.