KARACHI: A recent fatal accident on the M-9 Motorway, claiming more than a dozen lives, has once again exposed a deadly gap in the megacity’s emergency infrastructure: no trauma hospital exists near one of the busiest highways in Sindh, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.
Expressing heartfelt grief over the loss of precious lives, he demanded a full public inquiry into a previously government-approved trauma centre project near Safoora, Scheme 33, which was completed with taxpayers’ money years ago but never opened as a government facility. He regretted that this mega project was built for the people, but wasted for years.
He revealed that the trauma centre near Safoora was planned, approved, budgeted, and fully constructed by the Sindh government to serve accident victims from the nearby Superhighway, now called M-9 Motorway. “This was a building meant to save lives. Public funds, public land, and public trust went into it. And yet, it never served the people,” Shakoor said. He added: “Every day that building sat idle, lives was at risk. This is not just negligence; it is a loss that could have been prevented.”
Handed to Memon Medical Institute (MMI) in 2004 during Governor Dr. Ishratul Ibad Khan’s tenure, this costly and crucial project was discontinued, he regretted. The fully completed building, along with valuable public land, was handed to the private sector through an ‘auction’.
He questioned the rationale: Why was a fully built public trauma hospital abandoned? On what policy or legal basis was public land and infrastructure handed to a private institution? “This was public money and public land, meant to save lives. Citizens have a right to answers,” he said.
Demanding for full transparency, Altaf Shakoor urged the government to immediately release all relevant records: PC-I approval documents, budget release and expenditure details; completion and inspection reports; cabinet or departmental decisions leading to abandonment; auction and transfer documents, including valuations.
If this transfer was truly in public interest and lawful, the records should be made public immediately, he said. “Silence will only deepen suspicion and anger.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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