‘Jeene Do Karachi’ march today at Shahrah-e-Faisal: City ‘is no longer’ safe for either lives or property: JI Ameer

KARACHI: Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi, Monem Zafar has said that the city “is no longer” safe for either lives or property, asserting that the Gul Plaza tragedy has exposed the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) corruption, mismanagement, and criminal negligence.

Addressing a press conference at Idara Noor-e-Haq, the JI Karachi headquarters, on Saturday, Monem Zafar said that even after two weeks, the remains of victims of the Gul Plaza incident have not been fully handed over to their families. He termed this a clear failure of the provincial government and state institutions.

He said that 17 to 18 funerals were offered in Karachi just a day earlier, while authorities had claimed that 87 people lost their lives in the tragedy. So far, only 42 bodies and remains have been identified and handed over through DNA testing, which, he said, reflects the inefficiency and negligence of the authorities.

The JI leader said that Karachi has become the most unsafe city, where one tragedy follows another, and neither life nor property is protected. He stated that the Gul Plaza incident has completely exposed the PPP government’s incompetence and inability to fulfil its responsibilities.

Monem Zafar criticized Mayor Murtaza Wahab and Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah for, instead of accepting responsibility, making excuses and lacking the moral courage to resign. He said traders helplessly watched their businesses burn while families waited for news of their loved ones, but the government failed to take any drastic steps to save lives and property.

He said the government had only announced multi-billion-rupee relief packages, with no visible work on the ground. Commenting on what he described as a fresh volley of claims by the government, he said repeated announcements regarding the Karachi Transformation Plan, infrastructure development, PSD funds, and mega projects had proven to be nothing more than fraud and deception, as projects continued to miss deadlines.

Highlighting governance failures, he said prolonged load-shedding of up to 18 hours, rising street crime, unchecked movement of heavy traffic, and 450 traffic accidents recorded in January alone reflected a complete collapse of governance in the city.

Monem Zafar announced that Jamaat-e-Islami would hold a massive “Jeene Do Karachi” march on February 1 at Shahrah-e-Faisal, under the leadership of JI Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman. He said the march would demonstrate public strength and that the future course of action would be announced on the occasion.

He added that more than 100 awareness camps had already been set up across Karachi, and that the trader community had also announced its support for the march.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026