Express Tribune Editorials 10th August 2026

Stalled water project

Karachi's water crisis has become so normal that its abnormality scarcely attracts official urgency anymore. Yet Thursday's revelation that the estimated cost of K-IV project - the city's long-promised lifeline - has ballooned more than ten times while its capacity has been slashed to barely a third of what was originally envisaged should jolt policymakers into recognising the sheer negligence.

Envisaged in 2007 at a cost of Rs15.8 billion to supply 650 million gallons of water daily, the project which is also called Greater Karachi Bulk Water Supply Scheme has now become a Rs172 billion undertaking expected to deliver only 260 million gallons a day. Delayed by well over a decade and still awaiting completion, the project has become a cautionary tale of how poor planning and bureaucratic inertia can undermine even the most essential public infrastructure. The consequences have been measured in the hardships endured daily by Karachi's nearly 25 million residents. Those hardships are now woven into the fabric of urban life. In countless neighbourhoods, municipal supply is either erratic or virtually nonexistent, forcing households to organise their lives around water deliveries that may or may not arrive. Families routinely spend thousands of rupees each month on private tankers. For those unable to afford tanker water, the alternative is often to install bore wells and draw groundwater from beneath the city. But years of unchecked extraction and seawater intrusion have rendered much of Karachi's groundwater increasingly saline. Water obtained through boring is frequently unsuitable for drinking and, in many areas, even for washing.

The federal government's renewed commitment to funding the project is welcome, as is the Planning Minister's insistence that critical components be completed in tandem. But this cannot become another exercise in optimistic timelines unsupported by effective implementation.

Space for women

Handling legal affairs is already a Herculean task in Pakistan, but when women are added to the mix, it turns into an ordeal made as complex and grueling as possible. Therefore, Chief Justice Yahya Afridi's announcement that women facilitation centers will be built in courts nationwide deserves praise - albeit cautious praise.

For decades, women navigating Pakistan's judicial system whether as litigants, lawyers or simply visitors, have had to contend with courtrooms that are designed with no regard for their basic comfort or safety. Women do not have separate entrances, which might be termed a needless frivolity only by someone who has not witnessed the way a woman is stared down in a courtroom. They also have no private waiting spaces, no dedicated washrooms and little in terms of psychosocial support even in instances where they are fleeing abuse, fighting for custody or seeking inheritance rights denied to them for years.

Furthermore, Pakistan's judiciary has a long history of well-intentioned announcements that bear no fruit at the provincial or district level. A facilitation centre inaugurated with fanfare in one city means little if dozens of other courts, particularly in smaller towns and rural districts, are left waiting years for their turn.

The real test of the CJP's announcement will come in the face of funding, timelines and follow-through. If implemented seriously, these centres could meaningfully lower the threshold at which women decide if a legal problem is even worth pursuing. If not, they risk becoming another statistic - except for the part where there is no conclusive data on a crime due to women's hesitation in filing a report. The judiciary must treat this year's designation as more than a symbolic gesture, instead aiming to be transparent about and achieving its very first deadline.