New York Times reported on June 14th 2015 that the death toll reached 1,000 in Karachi as residents grappled with a devastating heat wave that has crippled life and overwhelmed the health care system. Searing temperatures, which have been as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit, or 45 degrees Celsius, fell below 100 on Thursday, but a sense of panic and crisis persisted in the city, the country’s financial and commercial capital as well as the capital of Sindh Province.
There has been a sharp increase in the sale of air-conditioners and room coolers, local traders said. Morgues have run short of space, and hospitals are filled to capacity as patients scramble to be treated for dehydration and heatstroke. The heat wave has sent more than 14,000 people into government and private hospitals here. For sellers of home appliances, there has been a run on products for cooling and controlling humidity. Sales in Karachi are up by about 25 percent, and prices have climbed. “We did not see such sale of air-conditioners, room coolers and fans in the past,” said Rizwan Irfan, a leader of Karachi’s electronic traders’ association. “The stocks of these appliances are running out.”
Angered by the continuing power cuts, residents in several parts of the city have organized protests and blocked traffic. Even lawmakers from the province’s governing party staged a protest outside the Sindh Assembly’s building Wednesday.
Dawn, the country’s leading English-language daily, however, published an editorial on Thursday criticizing the provincial government’s effort to blame the power supply for the high number of deaths, calling that absurd.“The Sindh government is focusing excessively on electricity as the cause behind the deaths,” the newspaper said, “and not enough on measures that more directly deal with the cause of the deaths.” The opposition politician Imran Khan also visited Jinnah on Thursday. During the visit, he blamed the provincial and federal governments for failing to provide adequate health care facilities for those affected
