Islamabad: Pakistani lawmaker Syed Mustafa Kamal in a speech in the parliament contrasted India’s achievements, citing Moon landing, with Pakistan’s situation of a child being killed after falling in an open gutter in Karachi, NDTV reported.
The Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) leader highlighted the lack of fresh water in the Pakistani city of Karachi.
"Today, the condition in Karachi is that, while the world is going to the moon, children are dying by falling into gutter in Karachi. On the same screen, there is news that India landed on the moon, and just after two seconds, the news is that a child died in an open gutter in Karachi," Kamal reportedly told the Parliament on Wednesday.
Further drawing attention to the country’s situation, the MQM-P leader said as many as 70 lakh children in Karachi and over 2.6 crore children in Pakistan are not able to go to schools.
Calling Karchi the revenue engine of the country, Kamal said the country’s two seaports are in the city as the gateway to the country, Central Asia to Afghanistan.
He added that ‘For 15 years, Karachi was not given even a bit of fresh water. Even the water that came, the tanker mafia hoarded it and sold it to the people of Karachi.’
Pointing out the country’s faltering education system, he said: ‘We have a total of 48,000 schools, but a new report says that out of that 11,000 are 'ghost schools'. 70 lakh children in Sindh don't go to school and a total of 2,62,00,000 children in the country don't go to school...if we just focus on this, the leaders of the country shouldn't even get proper sleep.’
Pakistan is in the midst of a deepening economic distress, high inflation, and mounting debt.
The country is looking forward to avail a new loan programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
A team from the agency, currently having talks with Pakistan authorities, reportedly directed the country to bring about "strong cost-side reforms" to streamline its energy sector, the report said citing ARY News.
India last year became the first country to safely land a lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3 lander, on the South Pole of the moon.