Chairman Businessmen Group Zubair Motiwala and President Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), Muhammad Jawed Bilwani, while expressing deep concerns over the city’s worsening monsoon crises, lamented that torrential rains have wreaked havoc across Karachi, plunging every corner of the metropolis into chaos and imposing unbearable hardships on its citizens.

Despite being the country’s economic engine, contributing massively to the national exchequer and feeding the entire nation, Karachi continues to suffer neglect and discrimination, with a meager amount being reinvested into improving the city’s crumbling infrastructure, they added in a joint statement issued here on Thursday.

Recalling April 21 letters to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah, Mayor Murtaza Wahab, and Commissioner Syed Hassan Naqvi which had forewarned of precisely this disaster, Chairman BMG and President KCCI demanded that the Sindh Government must immediately declare an emergency in Karachi as torrential rains have already crippled the metropolis, while a stronger rain spell has been forecasted for next week. Only an emergency declaration can cut through bureaucracy, unlock resources, and mobilize agencies with the speed this crisis demands. Anything less will be unforgivable negligence, they stressed.

Chairman BMG Zubair Motiwala said, “Karachi has once again been brought to its knees. Our streets have turned into rivers, homes are submerged, 17 precious lives have been lost, and businesses are in great crisis. This is the precise catastrophe we had feared when we appealed to the Chief Minister and others in April to ensure timely cleaning of Gujjar, Orangi, Manzoor Colony, Lyari and Orangabad nullahs, besides improving the city’s awful sewerage infrastructure. Tragically, those warnings were not heeded with the urgency they deserved.”

While appealing the Sindh Government to immediately compensate the losses suffered by shopkeepers in small markets across Karachi, whose premises were inundated and goods destroyed beyond recovery, Zubair Motiwala also advised Chief Minister Sindh to at least freeze all provincial taxes in light of the widespread devastation. “The Karachi Chamber stands shoulder to shoulder with the affected shopkeepers and remains fully committed to supporting them in this difficult time. We are ready to act as a bridge between the aggrieved shopkeepers and the government to ensure that timely relief and assistance are delivered where it is needed most”, he affirmed.

“Industrial zones, too, have sustained massive damage, with production brought to a standstill as electricity supply by K-Electric has remained suspended for more than 36 hours while residential areas are facing the same ordeal. Both, the industrial as well as residential areas, face repeated power supply tripping since the very first drop of rain, leaving citizens and businesses helpless in the midst of this crisis”, Chairman BMG said, adding that electricity and gas bill payments must also be deferred until the situation returns to normalcy, as business activities across Karachi have virtually come to a standstill and traders are in no position to bear additional financial burdens under the present crisis.

President KCCI Jawed Bilwani noted that Karachi received record-breaking downpours this week, with approximately 250 mm of rain, far beyond the city’s fragile drainage capacity. The flooding has left neighborhoods stranded, infrastructure battered, and the death toll climbing. “Every passing hour without decisive action is deepening Karachi’s wounds”, Bilwani cautioned.

He said that the extraordinary rainfall has forced the closure of schools, colleges, universities, businesses and industries, inflicting losses worth billions of rupees on both the national and provincial economies, in addition to the tragic loss of human lives. He stressed that had the cleaning of nullahs been carried out promptly, as identified by KCCI in April, many of these precious lives could have been saved. “What Karachi desperately needs is a clear year-round plan of action, with effective strategies to ensure the regular cleanliness of sewerage lines as well as rainwater and stormwater nullahs,” he added.

President KCCI also called upon the Sindh Government, Karachi Municipal Corporation, Pakistan Disaster Management Authority, district administrations, K-Electric, Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation and civic agencies to work under a unified chain of command and launch a massive, round-the-clock operation to clear all major nullahs and stormwater drains without delay. He further urged for deployment of rescue teams, dewatering machinery, and emergency shelters in flood-prone areas, alongside public awareness campaigns to keep citizens informed and safe.

Bilwani said, “Our communities are in peril, our economy is at risk, and Karachi’s resilience now hangs by a thread. We urge Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to rise to this moment and take extraordinary measures. The business community is ready to extend every possible support, but the government must lead from the front.”