India's moon landing and kids dying in Karachi gutters aired on same screen: Pakistani lawmaker

Pakistani politician Syed Mustafa Kamal's comments come as Pakistan's economy is currently grappling with structural bottlenecks, exacerbated by political uncertainty, despite some improvement in macroeconomic indicators.

Pakistani politician Syed Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday referred to India in his Parliament speech comparing it with the degrading state of his own country.

While India is making it to the news for landing on the moon, children in Pakistan are dying after falling into gutters, the Senior Deputy Convener Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan said.

"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," he said, adding that this happens every third day.

Highlighting the water crisis in the city, he said that since the past 15 years Karachi did not get a drop of fresh water.

"Karachi is the revenue engine of Pakistan. The two seaports operational in Pakistan since its inception, are both in Karachi....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," stressed Kamal.

Shedding light on the education system, Kamal said that while 70 lakh children in Sindh do not go to school, a total of 2,62,00,000 children in the country are not going to school, he pointed out.

Stating the figures in the Parliament, he said that if one gives some thought to this, they will not be able to sleep at night.

His comments come as Pakistan's economy is currently grappling with structural bottlenecks, exacerbated by political uncertainty, despite some improvement in macroeconomic indicators.

The State Bank of Pakistan said in its six-monthly report that there had been a moderate recovery in real economic activities since last year.

But "political uncertainty exacerbates the situation through inconsistency in economic policies, weak governance and public administration", it said.

Meanwhile, India took a giant leap in with its historic moon landing when Chandrayaan-3 successfully touched down on the lunar surface.

In August 2023, riding a billion cheers and cruising through a tricky descent of about 19 minutes, the lander module of India's Chandrayaan-3 kept its date with the moon. The touchdown made India the first country to reach the largely unexplored south polar region of the moon, setting up a series of experiments spanning 14 earth days, through payloads on the lander, rover and propulsion module.

(With DHNS, Reuters unputs)