It was one of the worst experiences of my life in dealing with the situation created by torrential rains on Thursday, August 17, 2006. I went to attend a public dialogue on Democratisation of State and Society at Pakistan Press Foundation, Karachi.
While the last speaker was delivering his speech about 5:30pm, I was called by one of my family members who informed me that heavy rains in Karachi have started.
When the meeting was finished and I went out, I saw that half of the tyres of my car was dipped under the water. I thought that I should continue my journey and go home, as it was a heavy downpour.
After going through the flooded roads of Zaibunnisa Street, I choose to go through Shahrah-e-Faisal. After three hours, I reached Shahrah-e-Faisal from Zaibunnisa Street and saw that traffic was completely jammed.
I was stuck up for another three hours there but I could not see any traffic police. I started calling from my cell phone traffic police control 915 and police emergency number 15, but despite repeated attempts, nobody picked up the phone.
Around 9pm, I called DIG Traffic on his cell number and informed him that it is a complete chaos at Shahrah-e-Faisal and thousands of vehicles are stranded there. Thereafter a few traffic policemen came, but could not manage to make the way for the vehicles to move ahead due to rainwater on main Shahrah-e-Faisal. I again called DIG Traffic at 12 midnight, but this time he did not answer my call.
Thanks to Military Police who came and took charge of the traffic control. I towed my car with the help of some people to a nearby gas station and parked the car there. In order to reach home, I continued my journey by walking on the roads in the night and reached home at 03:00 hrs next morning.
Politicians and the civil government servants talk a lot about the welfare of the masses, but it was only the Military Police who came to the rescue of the ordinary citizens and the high ups of the civil administration did not extended any help to the people who were stranded at Shahrah-e-Faisal. The ordinary citizens were left at the mercy of the weather.