Eight-year-old Hakeemullah is the latest fatality in a pattern of open-manhole deaths that prompted arrests and a province-wide directive earlier this year
LAHORE: An eight-year-old boy died this week after falling into an open manhole in the Hanjarwal area of Lahore, returning public attention to a hazard that has already produced arrests, suspensions and a chief ministerial directive within the past eight months.
The child, identified as Hakeemullah, was playing outside his home when he fell in, according to reports published August 17. He was pulled out and taken to hospital, where he died of his injuries. Police reached the scene and took the body into custody.
The Hanjarwal death follows a series of comparable incidents. In late January, a young woman and her infant daughter died after falling into an open sewer at a construction site near Bhati Gate, in the Data Darbar project area. Video footage of the incident and the subsequent recovery of the bodies contradicted initial accounts given by LDA, WASA and Rescue 1122, all of which had at first treated the report as unfounded.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz chaired an emergency meeting on the Bhati Gate deaths and described the failure as criminal negligence. She held the district administration, the Lahore Development Authority, WASA and other departments collectively responsible, ordering removal from service and arrest of four officials. In a post on X she wrote that the loss of an innocent life in the heart of Lahore was a crime rather than an accident.
She also directed the chief secretary that all open ditches and manholes at construction sites be covered across Punjab immediately, observing that construction was meant to serve the public, not kill them, and noting bluntly that it is the poor who fall into open manholes.
Three officials of the contractor were arrested in the immediate aftermath. A local court subsequently granted four days’ physical remand for five accused, including Project Manager Asghar Sandhu, safety in-charge Hunzala and site in-charge Ahmad Nawaz. Two TEPA officials were suspended, and the CM directed removal of TEPA Project Director Zahid Hussain and a WASA site in-charge.
Critically for the question of institutional responsibility, the court order seen by Dawn directed the investigating officer to also examine contributory negligence by WASA officers and the civil administration responsible for overseeing the construction project at the site.
Following the January deaths, WASA Lahore announced that attempt-to-murder cases under Section 324 would be registered against anyone found stealing, purchasing or selling manhole covers, and urged residents to report missing or damaged covers immediately. Complaints can be lodged on 1334 or 0334-1334470.
These are not isolated to Lahore. A seven-year-old died in an open manhole in Dhanote town near Lodhran, Bahawalpur district, and a three-year-old’s body was recovered from a manhole in Karachi’s Gulshan-i-Iqbal more than twelve hours after the incident was first reported. The Karachi death drew protests from Jamaat-i-Islami and PTI, with demands that those responsible be named in the FIR.
Whether an FIR has been registered in the Hanjarwal case, whether any WASA or municipal official has been named, and what the family is seeking. Those answers require reporting on the ground, not inference from the January precedent.
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