Commissioner Karachi Syed Hasan Naqvi has refuted claims of large-scale deaths in the city due to a severe heatwave. He clarified that only 10 people have died over the past two days in the Karachi division.
In a media briefing at his office, Commissioner Naqvi addressed the reports of mass casualties from the heatwave. He stated that data from various sources confirmed that 10 individuals had died due to the humid conditions.
The sources included hospital patient information, graveyard burial data from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), and records from mortuaries.
Naqvi stated that the reports of widespread deaths were not accurate, as no source had verified those figures. He added that around 1,700 patients with heat stroke were treated at hospitals across the Karachi division.
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He also said that mortuaries typically do not record the cause of death, requiring the administration to contact the deceased persons’ families. According to Naqvi, only about five percent of respondents attributed the cause of death to heat stroke.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed alarm over reports from the Edhi Foundation, which estimated that 568 people had died in Karachi due to heatwave-induced illnesses in the past five days.
The HRCP highlighted the urgent need for federal, provincial, and local governments to address the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and implement measures to prevent future deaths.
