In just 12 days of the new year, the people of Karachi were alarmed by another seismic activity felt on Thursday evening in a large number of areas in the southwestern part of the metropolitan. Previously, jolts were felt in many localities of the southeastern part of the metropolis. Though the tremor felt on Thursday was of low intensity, frightened people in many areas rushed outside their homes. The jolts were felts in Korangi, the Defence Housing Authority, Clifton, Ibrahim Hyderi, Korangi Industrial Area, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, Ghagar Phatak, fishermen’s settlements along the coastal belts, and many other areas.
While Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD)-Sindh officials confirmed the occurrence of the earthquake in some parts of the city, they were clueless about the intensity of the tremors on the Richter scale. “Our system shows that tremors were felt in some parts of the city, but the intensity of these jolts was so low that we couldn’t record it on the Richter scale,” said PMD-Sindh Chief Meteorologist Naeem Shah. Despite having advanced equipment, as well as having access to the Early Tsunami Centre and the National Seismic Monitoring Centre, there is clearly a pattern in the PMD-Sindh officials’ habit of being clueless about the intensity of earthquakes occurring in the city.
Different studies reveal that Karachi is at high quake risk because the city lies on one major and four minor fault lines around 150 kilometres east of the triple junction between the Arabian, Indian and Asian plates, but despite that, the federal or provincial governments have hitherto taken no precautionary measures to tackle emergency situations.
