Karachi fountain becomes symbol of wrong priorities

Karachi: Bizarre as some of the stories emanating from Pakistan are, this one is shocking. A Rs220-million (Dh10 million) fountain installed off the Karachi coast during former president Pervez Musharraf's time in office is shocking testimony to the wastage of public funds.

Musharraf had taken personal pride in the water spout, reportedly among the highest in Asia. Though the sight is admittedly an attraction, the colossal waste of public money in a city beset by infrastructure woes, thousands of homeless poor and some of the biggest slums in the world, has not gone unnoticed.

Earlier, the controversial fountain was stolen from Oyster Rocks last October. The audacious theft created an uproar, especially as it occurred in a highly secured area patrolled by the navy. It was assumed that an insider hand was involved. It was also reported city authorities were secretly relieved to be rid of an installment that cost huge sums of money to run each day.

Now, some six months after it vanished, the fountain has re-appeared at the very site from where it had been originally installed.

This happened soon after the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly in Islamabad had raised the issue in the House and sought to know if an inquiry into the theft had yielded any results.

Little has been officially spoken about who took away the fountain or why. But there have been insinuations that a 'powerful institution' - usually a reference to the military. But there is no sense of rejoicing now that it has returned.

"That fountain is a monstrosity. It is terrible to spend so much money on so ridiculous an object. What was the point of it anyway," asked Parveen Abdullah, a long-time resident of Karachi.