Local governments remain the only real antidote to Pakistan's development rot. Yet in Karachi today, major infrastructure projects dominate the provincial government's imagination. Flyovers, underpasses, buses, housing schemes and mega water projects are rolled out and defended with great fanfare. In the face of criticism, the government responds with lists: K-IV, mass transit, Shahrah-e-Bhutto, and road expansions. Progress, we are told, is underway.

And yet, the citizenry feels deeply underserved.

The reason is neither a mystery nor ideological. It is painfully mundane. Day-to-day governance has collapsed. The back roads off major arteries are in disrepair. Drainage and sewage systems routinely fail. Pavements are broken or nonexistent. Construction is unregulated. Pest control is absent. These are not abstract policy failures; they are daily indignities that grind people down through sheer repetition.

Is this willful neglect, or the hubris of indispensability?

The Pakistan People's Party recently won a mandate in Karachi, but it governs under constant anxiety — fear of dismissal, governor's rule or extra-constitutional intervention. In such a climate, its instinct is to cling to visibility. Mega projects become shields. They signal competence while betraying governance on the ground. This does not........

© The Express Tribune