October 21, 2025
ISLAMABAD – At the far corner of a garage near Karachi’s Water Pump Chowrangi, two isolated trunks sit open, their stomachs half full with embroidered shalwar kameez, fancy sandals and henna. At the top are two boxes: a 62-piece dinner set and a six-piece bath set, with ‘Mahnoor’ scribbled on them with a pencil.
“This is the dowry we had been collecting for Mahnoor,” her uncle Zakir said. “We were to visit the groom’s house tomorrow to finalise the wedding date.”
But then, tragedy struck. On August 10, a wayward dumper truck, driven way above the allowed speed, crushed Mahnoor and her youngest sibling, leaving their father critically injured. Following the accident, a mob gathered and torched a total of seven dumpers in protest.
The garage at her house, which previously served as a stockroom for the 22-year-old’s upcoming wedding, has since been converted into a visiting area. Her father, Shakir, bandaged from head to toe, lay on a charpoy at the centre of the room. He drifted in and out of consciousness as a swarm of people surrounded him. When he is awake, all he talks about is the screams of his children moments before they were crushed by a dumper truck.
“Mahnoor shouted ‘papa’ … Ahmed screamed in shock,” the father, 47, cried. “When I looked back, neither of them was on the motorcycle … before I could register what happened, my bike lost balance,” he recalled. Shakir passed out on the road, which was almost deserted at 3am. He woke up at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where he found out that his youngest and eldest children were no more.
While he narrated the incident to Dawn.com, Shakir kept saying: “Main barbad hogaya (I am ruined)”. Beside him, Alishba and Hamza — the remaining two siblings who survived — wept profusely as the family’s elders moved forward to comfort their father.
Shakir’s loss is part of a much larger pattern — one that has claimed hundreds of lives in Karachi this year alone.
The city has witnessed a steep rise in traffic accidents over the last several months, particularly those involving heavy vehicles, such as dumper trucks and water tankers. According to official data, at least 538 people lost their lives in traffic accidents across the city during the first seven months of the year. The victims included 274 motorcyclists, 179 pedestrians, 51 women, and 68 children.
In the first half of this year, the numbers have significantly risen compared to 2024, when a total of 771 citizens were killed in 9,000 traffic accidents.
When tragedy strikes
Shakir’s two-storey house is a witness to the trend — in the last year, his family has lost four people, including children, to road accidents, particularly those caused by dumper trucks.
“Every time, a group of officials came to our house and left after making empty promises,” said Zakir, now the head of the house, as he instructed some boys seated nearby to make arrangements. The head of the Karachi Dumper Truck Association, along with the police and local leaders, was coming over to meet the barely conscious Shakir.
Soon, they arrived with an entourage of private guards and gathered around Shakir in a circle, hands raised as they prayed for the deceased. They offered condolences to Shakir, who did not open his eyes once in their presence.
When they left, Zakir told Dawn.com that the first information report of the accident had been registered by the state. “We no longer have a fight left inside us … we just want Shakir to recover,” he resigned. The FIR was not brought up again.
Shakir’s tragedy is not isolated — across Karachi, families like his have been torn apart by the city’s heavy vehicles, while others have narrowly escaped with their lives.
At Ali Zeeshan’s house, most of the conversations centre around the FIR and the “dumper mafia”. He and his wife are among those fortunate enough to have come out unscathed from an accident on Rashid Minhas Road earlier in February this year, when a dumper truck descending from the Jauhar Flyover hit multiple vehicles.
“At first, we thought an explosion had taken place nearby,” said Zeeshan, whose newly bought car, an MG SUV, was rammed from the rear by the dumper truck. “The second time it hit us, the windshield burst, airbags in my car flew open, and there was smoke everywhere,” he said. The couple was on the way to the airport to pick up a relative.
Zeeshan recounted that the first thing he told his wife was to get out of the car. “When I opened the door, I saw a pool of blood everywhere,” Faiza said. “As I got out, I saw a woman’s lifeless body in the middle of the road.”
A motorcycle and a rickshaw had been hit in the accident as well. Unfortunately, none of those aboard the two vehicles survived.
“There was a commotion in the area,” Zeeshan recalled to Dawn.com. “Scores of people had gathered at the accident site … some of them were filming videos of the incident, others were helping the injured.” So Faiza was sent home, and Zeeshan headed to the Sharea Faisal police station for a car fitness check and registration of an FIR.
By the time he came back home, he was tired and shaken, but more so, disappointed at the police apathy — the state registered the FIR, there was no compensation for his loss, and he was “actively discouraged” from pursuing the matter. “Aap jaise log kahan thaanon aur katcheri ke chakkar lagayen gain (people like you can’t keep going between the courts and police stations),” Zeeshan was told.
The dumper truck driver, on the other hand, was arrested a week after the incident and subsequently granted bail.
‘Just an accident’
Unlike Shakir, Zeeshan was fortunate to have remained unhurt in the accident, which took the lives of three people that day. “One can only imagine the agony of their families,” he sighed.
According to a 2018 World Health Organisation report, road accidents in Pakistan result in 14.3 deaths per 100,000 population. For Karachi’s 20.3 million population, this amounts to at least 2,800 fatalities annually. These are not just 2,800 funerals, but also 2,800 broken families whose entire lives have been upended.
But for the All Dumper Truck Owners Association, Karachi, these incidents are “just” accidents. “They are natural, they happen,” said Sardar Hameed, the body’s president. He had just got back to his one-room office in the Sohrab Goth area after a day-long hearing at the city court, on an accident that took place in Malir.
“They [the accidents] are not in control of the drivers,” he went on to add. “They are from God. We try our best, but it is out of our control.” Hameed insisted that dumper trucks were responsible for the least number of accidents in the city, claiming that the public’s attention was brought to them after “some people in power made irresponsible statements”.
“So now, the finger is just pointed at us,” he said, highlighting the recent incidents where citizens set dumper trucks on fire. “These accidents used to take place earlier as well…”
Yet, Hameed continued, the association has implemented a new set of rules for its vehicles and drivers, one of them being installing trackers inside the trucks to monitor their location and speed, which should be under the speed of 40km/hr — the data for which is collected in real time at the traffic police control room.
He explained that around 400 to 500 dumper trucks operate across Karachi every day, for two reasons: to deliver construction material (crush, sand, cement) and to dump garbage, the contract for which was given by the government. The men behind the steering wheels, who Hameed said hailed from all ethnicities, work shifts from 10pm to 6am, from which they earn Rs3,000 per day.
Earlier this year, the government imposed a ban on heavy vehicles after Karachiites took to the streets against the rise in fatal accidents caused by dumper trucks. Consequently, the government decided that heavy vehicles in the city would only operate at night. Initially, for two months, but later the order was extended.
However, dumper trucks are a common sight for commuters in the city throughout the day, which again raises the question of whether the government orders were actually implemented. “I got into the accident at around 5pm on a public holiday — Feb 5. We were coming down the busy Rashid Minhas Road flyover when it occurred,” recalled Zeeshan.
“The truck must have been at a speed of 50km/hr-60km/hr.”
He recollected how, after hitting his car, the truck driver tried to flee and, in the process of escaping with the vehicle, recklessly hit more people. “What were these trucks doing there during peak traffic hours? Why didn’t the police stop them? Do these drivers even know how to drive?” Zeeshan questioned.
Dawn.com made several attempts to contact Traffic Police DIG Pir Muhammad Shah to get answers to some of these questions, but failed to get a response.
Money for blood
For his part, Hameed said all dumper truck drivers hold a heavy transport vehicle driving license, which was why they were able to secure bail in case of an accident. In such a scenario, when the driver possesses a driving license, the case may be dealt with under Section 322 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The law states: Whoever commits qatl bis-sabab shall be liable to diyat. A person is said to commit qatl bis-sabab when they, without any intention, cause death or harm to another person.
The person who commits such an offence is liable to diyat, a form of compensatory punishment — a practice that is very common in the city. Case in point: when members of the dumper truck association visited Shakir’s residence, they announced a compensation of Rs500,000 for the grieving family.
Meanwhile, when the driver causes an accident due to irresponsible driving, they are charged under Section 320 of the PPC — punishment for qatl-i-khata by rash or negligent driving. Per the law, any person who unintentionally causes a person’s death by rash or negligent driving shall be punished with imprisonment for a term that can extend to 10 years, in addition to paying diyat (blood money), taking into account the case’s specific facts and circumstances.
Drivers without a license are primarily charged under this section if their negligence leads to a fatality, alongside other relevant PPC sections.
However, the offence is bailable, and thus, the grief of hundreds of families who have lost their loved ones in these accidents rarely finds justice. Only recently did the government move to change that when, in August, the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior approved a significant amendment, declaring Section 320 non-bailable in cases where a person dies due to reckless driving.
But the amendment is part of a proposed legislation — Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2024 — which is awaiting final approval and thus implementation. Until then, perpetrators charged under Section 320 of the PPC continue to secure bail.
The FIR registered for Zeeshan’s accident invoked the same section. “Within a few days of the incident, the driver’s family began reaching out to me, insistent that I forgive him in exchange for diyat,” he said. “But they weren’t even ready to pay half of the total cost of damages.”
There was back and forth for some days, but when Zeeshan refused to budge, they began harassing him and his family. “They visited my house at odd hours and kept tabs on my children,” he added. And so eventually, he decided to take a step back.
The practice of visiting the victim’s house is protocol for the association. As Hameed explained, “We try our best to be there for the bereaved families, so we visit them and offer a helping hand, whether through money or anything else.” There is a widespread sentiment among dumper truck drivers and owners of being wrongly “targeted” and “misunderstood”, both by the government and the people.
They lay the blame on motorcyclists and rickshaw drivers. “We are tired of them … they try to pass through even the tiniest of spaces, lose balance and crash,” said Zaman Khan, a dumper truck driver who came to Karachi from his hometown of Dera Ismail Khan in 1998. “I have been driving for at least the last 20 years, and not once have I gotten into an accident. But I have seen many, and in most of them, the motorcyclist is at fault.”
“Yet, we are the ones who are blamed, our vehicles are burnt down, and we are beaten up by the public,” Zaman told Dawn.com.
Hameed, the president of the dumper truck association, agreed, adding that illegal parking and encroachments on roads across the city were another factor contributing to traffic accidents. “Shops, garages, and showrooms sit on main arteries and cars are parked right in the middle of the roads … so if we are driving at the speed of 40km/hr, even abrupt brakes cannot save us from an accident.”
Here, he pointed out, it was the responsibility of the government to enforce adherence to the law.
Dawn.com also reached out to Sindh Minister for Transport Sharjeel Inam Memon, but he did not respond to requests for comment.
However, during a Sindh Assembly session held after public outrage over Shakir’s accident grew, Memon said that only the dumpers equipped with trackers and cameras would be allowed to enter the metropolis, and the complete record and licence of every driver, regardless of which city they came from, would be checked.
More than just rash driving
On the flip side, experts say Karachi’s traffic chaos is rooted not only in reckless driving but also in systemic failures — neglected road infrastructure, weak enforcement, and mismanaged traffic flow.
At a dialogue, titled “Traffic and Transport Issues in Karachi — Proposed Solutions”, organised by the Concerned Citizens Alliance (CCA) earlier this year, architect and urban planner Arif Hasan said all these issues were part of a larger cultural attitude “sab chalta hai [everything works]” which affects laws and their enforcement as well as the proper execution of projects.
He said there were no management and maintenance plans in place for Karachi and stressed that a special management system was needed to resolve traffic and transport issues in the metropolis.
According to senior academic and researcher Prof Dr Noman Ahmed, the primary issue behind the rising number of fatal accidents is the overall status of roads across the city. “The condition of most roads is such that there are potholes at every corner and the asphalt is uneven, which is hindering the routine operations of heavy vehicles.”
He explained that asphalt played a key role in creating friction during contact with the tyre, so the better the asphalt, the stronger the brakes. Such anomalies are prevalent on major arteries across the city, raising questions regarding their maintenance and operability.
Then there are some main thoroughfares where a different set of challenges occurs, such as the University Road and Shahrah-i-Sher Shah Suri, located in the North Nazimabad town, where major projects — Green and Red Line — have been under construction for years now. This has left the roads in a state of perpetual disrepair. The NIPA flyover and Civic Centre traffic sections are another two visible examples.
Residents and urban planners alike point out that Karachi’s road problems are persistent, with poor quality control ensuring that even new projects quickly deteriorate. “This is because we have very poor quality control,” Dr Noman pointed out. “Even when roads are reconstructed, they are back to a dilapidated state as soon as the first raindrop of the monsoon season drops.”
Secondly, there was a need to construct major arteries in a way that could sustain the everyday movement of heavy vehicles. This must also be implemented in neighbourhoods where construction work is underway because that is where most dumper trucks are headed.
For example, a lot of houses are being built in DHA Phase VIII, and so there are a lot of dumper trucks travelling in and out of the area to deliver gravel, sand and other materials. But the roads of these areas are not built in a way that they can withstand the daily movement of heavy vehicles.
Another big challenge in Karachi that Dr Noman highlighted was the lack of safety infrastructure on the city’s roads. “Leaving a few arteries, you may not find any road here with proper lane markings,” he said, explaining that these markings are essential for road safety because they guide drivers, cyclists and pedestrians while also improving traffic flow and helping to prevent accidents by providing clear instructions.
Hence, they are critical for navigation.
Similarly, we have plenty of traffic signals, but how many actually do work? “Most of them are made dysfunctional, and then a traffic constable takes their place, which creates more chaos because signals are synchronised and can be timed according to peak and off-peak hours.” They don’t just reduce human labour but are also efficient in traffic management.
Another problem is black spots — specific and limited stretches of roadway that have an unusually high frequency of road accidents due to poor road design or lack of surveillance. Many of these spots are found in District South, particularly DHA. Identifying and rectifying these spots is a crucial aspect of road safety management, involving detailed investigations to diagnose the causes and implement engineering solutions, said Dr Noman.
Misplaced speed breakers also contribute to accidents. “It has become quite a nightmare,” he said, referring to speed breakers built on main roads instead of neighbourhood lanes. “You don’t make speed breakers on main roads; they should instead be on secondary streets and neighbourhood lanes.”
For throughways, speed neutralisers can be used — they are very small speed breakers placed in quick succession. “So even if a vehicle is speeding, it will automatically slow down, and the neutralisers act as warnings. This won’t just protect the citizens but also their vehicles, whether big or small,” Dr Noman added.
Finding hope in a haystack
Karachi’s crumbling infrastructure — from broken roads to dilapidated buildings — is a daily reminder of systemic neglect. For residents like Lubna, Mahnoor and Ahmed’s mother, this neglect translates into constant grief. “Living in this city is akin to living in tragedy. All the time,” she said.
Experts, however, stress that solutions exist — if only the will to enforce them does.
“First of all, we have to undertake a kind of profiling and categorisation of heavy vehicles,” Dr Noman said. This involves looking at the number of heavy vehicles moving through Karachi and their destinations, which would help in their management. Once this happens, authorities would be able to find out which vehicles are used predominantly in the morning, and then they could be assigned specific routes.
These routes can thus be marked for commuters. What can also be done is that heavy vehicles involved in the functioning of daytime enterprises — such as dumper trucks carrying construction material or waste and water tankers — can be assigned out-of-city routes.
Then come the drivers, who must be given some kind of training. Hameed, the president of the dumper truck association, mentioned that drivers first have to spend three years as conductors, during which they learn the tricks of the trade. But formal training was still missing.
“A common observation is that when a heavy vehicle is loaded, it has a stipulated velocity at which it should be operated because the braking systems of the vehicle are affected by the weight it is carrying, especially when it climbs a slope and comes down from the bridge,” said Dr Noman.
Here comes engineering, because it teaches how vehicles have their own operational considerations. The driver should not just be limited to the brakes, clutch or the gear; they should also be aware of the vehicle’s vulnerabilities and critical areas.
Here, Dr Noman stressed, motorcyclists are also an important stakeholder because there are four million of them in Karachi and they are the most vulnerable to accidents. Shakir and his children, too, were on a motorcycle when they were hit.
“If you look at this figure, it would be very difficult to expect that all these motorcyclists would have received any kind of proper training about traffic rules and regulations.” And a chunk of this responsibility falls on the traffic police, which is slacking when it comes to proper surveillance.
“The biggest problem is that when they execute their regulatory checks, their emphasis is more on documents, based on which fines are imposed. But they are not looking at how big a crime is being committed. Ultimately, there is rarely any accountability,” the academic pointed out.
He suggested that cameras must be installed for road surveillance, and along with that, special attention should be paid to black spots, so that the physical arrangement of traffic can be improved.
“Without these changes, the fatalities from traffic accidents will continue to rise,” he warned.
Back in the garage at Shakir’s house, Mahnoor’s dinner set waits in its taped box. The FIR is filed, the association has offered Rs500,000, and the trucks still roll past Lucky One day in and day out. Until Karachi can slow them down, fix its roads and enforce its own rules, those boxes will keep outliving the people they were meant for.