Lahore (Sapeher Times) Insensitive administration, the concept of Lahore as a safe city has fallen into a manhole.

Lahore (Sapeher Times) The concept of Lahore as a safe city has fallen into a manhole. The Punjab government is already under criticism for good governance. The incident of a woman and a girl falling into a sewer hole has left a gap.
Suspension of those responsible is not the solution to this tragic incident. The officials of Rescue 1122 have been hiding from the department for many years and how can they take action against themselves? Therefore, a judicial commission should be formed so that those responsible can be punished.
A society where life and property are not safe puts the survival and development of the human race at risk. Therefore, there is no population, group, or party in the world that does not enact laws to protect life and property. Causing the unjust death of a human being is as sinful as unjust murder.
The insensitive administration is responsible for the Lahore incident. The murder incident is not just an accident but a result of criminal negligence. The case should be registered under serious provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has condemned the murder of a mother and a girl in Lahore after they fell into a manhole. The officials of all the institutions involved in the rescue operation have been brought to book over the painful incident. The Punjab Chief Minister has directed the police, Rescue 1122, WASA and the district administration to immediately submit an impartial fact-finding report based on all aspects related to the incident.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz continuously took minute-by-minute reports of the incident of the mother and child falling into the manhole during the Bhakkar engagements, and has directed action against all officers and institutions giving contradictory and unauthentic information about the operation.
On the other hand, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has ordered strict action against the negligence and carelessness of the administration in the incident of the woman and child falling into the sewerage hole. The Punjab Chief Minister gave the order for strict action against the negligence and carelessness of the administration in an emergency meeting at the airport upon his return from Bhakkar. The Chief Minister ordered an impartial fact-finding report regarding the incident to be submitted immediately. On the instructions of the Chief Minister, Director TIPA Shabbir Hussain was suspended. Project Director Zahid Abbas and Deputy Director Shabbir Ahmed have also been suspended for negligence and negligence.
The Chief Minister of Punjab formed an investigation committee headed by the Additional Chief Secretary to get to the bottom of the incident. The committee will conduct an investigation and submit a report within 24 hours.
It should be noted that initially the institutions were calling the incident a lie, the woman’s husband was taken into custody by the police, he was released after the woman’s body was found, the girl’s body was recovered from the drain after 17 hours.
In civilized societies, humans have formulated various laws to prevent crimes through their customs, parliament resolutions, etc., so that they can benefit society significantly. In Pakistan, laws exist, but who can enforce them? This is called good governance. The Creator of the universe, who is also the Creator of humans, is also aware of their psychology. History is a witness that wherever laws were implemented in practice, peace and tranquility reigned, the lives and property of the public were protected. Murder by culpability is a murder in which a person indirectly causes the death or injury of another person.
For good governance, there is no choice but to take strict measures to protect the public in civilized societies. If the life and property of every person is saved by punishing one or two criminals, then this is not a loss. The rescue personnel are responsible for the Lahore incident. Rescue immediately declared it fake after the incident. The rescue personnel’s statement changed the entire scenario. The husband was arrested by the police on this statement. The performance of the entire administration is extremely shameful. Those responsible should be punished.
The local administration is indifferent to the incident of a woman and a girl falling into a sewer hole. New details have come to light regarding the body of a woman who fell into a sewer line. According to a private TV channel, the husband had informed that the mother and daughter had fallen into a sewer hole.
It should be remembered that rescue personnel are there to protect the public, but nowadays instead of protecting the public, they seem to be busy with the media. The Lahore incident is proof of this. Rescue teams arrived within minutes, but before the search was over, the administration on the spot had issued a report to the media declaring the drowning report as ‘fake’.
Rescue sources had refused to accept the claim and said that it was technically impossible for a person to drown in this hole. The Lahore administration said that the sewer line had been inspected, no accident had occurred. In the initial investigation, the police issued a report of a husband’s dispute with his wife and serious allegations. The woman’s father had given a statement to the police that his daughter had been murdered. After this statement, three people, including the woman’s husband, were arrested on suspicion, but they were later released.
It should be noted that the affected family had come for a walk. After Minar-e-Pakistan, they reached Data Darbar. During this, the woman and the girl were sitting on the mandir of the sewer line, from where both fell down.
According to the initial investigation report of the incident, the victim, her daughter and her husband were seen shopping near Data Darbar at 6:47 pm and the three reached in front of Data Darbar at 7:22 pm.According to the report, at 7:30 am, the three were seen going from Data Darbar towards Old Bird Market and then at 7:32 am, Rescue 1122 received a call about the woman and the girl falling, after which the rescue personnel reached within 4 minutes.
According to sources, the administration had excavated the place, it was dark in the area at the time of the incident, the specialized teams and divers of Rescue 1122 reached the spot in just a few minutes.
On the other hand, the Lahore administration also said that they inspected the sewer line, it was found that no accident had taken place there.
The report said that the woman’s mother-in-law was seen shouting and calling people there. On the other hand, an audio message sent by Rescue 1122 officer Farooq Amjad to one of his officers confused the matter.
In the audio message, Farooq Amjad said that I have investigated on my own, I spoke to the girl’s father, he is suspicious, her father is also suspicious, when the whole matter came before me, I am also suspicious like you, I am not saying that the call is fake but like you I am suspicious. According to the audio message, Rescue 1122 continued the rescue operation all night and will not stop the operation until the investigating agencies tell us that it is a lie.
The rescue officer said that the conditions there are indicating that there is no chance of such an incident, but we cannot say that it is a fake call until proper investigations are done that it is a fake call.
On this audio message, Secretary Rescue Rizwan Naseer said that they are investigating why and to whom this message was sent.
The body of a woman who fell into a sewer line near Bhati Gate in Lahore was found from the Outfall Road sewer line, about 3 kilometers away, 6 hours after the incident. The body of 10-month-old Rida Fatima, who fell into a sewer line, was found on January 29 from the sewer line of Outfall Road.
Before the woman’s body was found, rescue sources said that it is technically impossible for a human to drown in the sewer hole in which two people have been claimed to have fallen. The location identified is in Paranda Market near Data Darbar. The rescue operation was carried out at three different locations: Outfall Road, Bhati Gate and Mohini Road.
On the other hand, Director General Lahore Development Authority Tahir Farooq took strict action on the matter of the death of a mother and a child who fell into a manhole in Bhati Chowk. He has suspended the entire team working on the Data Darbar project and has also issued a notification in this regard.
According to the notification, the project director, deputy director, assistant director and sub-engineer have been suspended. According to the LDA spokesperson, the DG LDA has also issued instructions to register a case against the contractor immediately.
It has been further informed that on the instructions of the DG LDA, a show cause notice has also been issued to the private company and the resident engineer NESPAK. The suspension of the resident engineer of NESPAK and departmental action and inquiry have been recommended and it has been decided to make the role of the NESPAK team in the project a part of the inquiry.
Rescue 1122 (Emergency 1122) is an emergency service in Pakistan that operates in the provinces of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. This service can be accessed by calling 1122 from any phone in Pakistan.
The husband had reported that the mother and daughter had fallen into the sewer hole. Rescue teams arrived within minutes, but before the search was over, the administration on the spot had issued a report to the media declaring the drowning report as ‘fake’.
Rescue sources had refused to accept the claim and said that it was technically impossible for a person to drown in this hole. Meanwhile, the brother of the woman who died after falling into the sewer line in the Bhati Gate area of ​​Lahore and the uncle of the little girl announced that they would file an FIR against the relevant government agencies for declaring the incident as ‘fake news’ and hiding the facts. The family said that the agencies had not only denied the incident to cover up their negligence, but had also harassed the affected family.
This sad incident took place in front of Data Darbar near Bhati Gate, where development work was underway and the sewer manhole was open. The victim was getting down from a rickshaw after attending a court ceremony with her young daughter when suddenly their feet slipped and they both fell into the open manhole. A 9-month-old girl was also involved.
According to the family, the manhole was about 20 to 25 feet deep and there was no cover on it. The woman’s brother and the girl’s maternal uncle had said that 1122 was informed immediately after the incident, but the rescue team arrived late from the scheduled time. Later, a search operation was launched, while officials of the Water and Sanitation Agency also reached the spot. The family alleged that WASA and other relevant agencies had taken the stand immediately after the incident that no accident had taken place here, and it was claimed that the manhole was so narrow that no one could fall into it. According to the victim’s family, this narrative was based on complete lies and was spread only to cover up institutional negligence.
The victim’s family further alleged that on the basis of the ‘fake news’ claim, the police detained and interrogated the woman’s husband and the rickshaw driver, who was a family member. According to the family, they had faced severe mental torture, even though they themselves were going through a major tragedy.The family had said that later the matter was taken notice of at the level of DIG Operations, after which contact was restored with the affected family and they were assured that a full investigation would be conducted into the incident. The woman’s brother had said that his sister has 3 minor children, 1 of whom was involved in the accident. The family had announced that they would file an FIR against WASA, TEPA, the relevant contractor, the stand administration and the responsible officers. They said that if the responsible parties were not brought to justice, such incidents would continue to occur. The affected family demanded that Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz conduct an impartial investigation into the incident, take strict action against all the institutions and officers guilty of negligence and provide justice to the affected family. Meanwhile, a case of a mother and daughter falling into a sewer line was registered in Lahore. According to the police, the case of the incident was registered on the complaint of the woman’s father. According to the text of the FIR, the son was told over the phone that his sister and niece had fallen into a manhole. Police say that a case has been registered against Project Manager Asghar Sandhu, Safety Incharge Daniyal and Site Incharge Ahmed Nawaz. After the mother and daughter fell into the sewer line at Bhati Chowk, the administration initially tried to suppress the incident and mislead the media and declared the information about the mother and daughter falling as fake. The administration’s position was that no such accident had occurred, technically it is not possible for a person to drown in this hole. The police also tried to paint the incident as a dispute between husband and wife in the initial investigation, making a report of a dispute between the husband and wife and making serious allegations. Three people, including the husband, were also taken into custody on suspicion. Later it was said that no one was taken into custody. It may be recalled that Rescue 1122 was initially established under the Punjab Emergency Service Act of 2006 to provide emergency services such as fire, rescue and emergency medical services. The Punjab Emergency Council and District Emergency Boards were formed to ensure the management and prevention of emergencies and to recommend measures to address threats to public safety. Before 2004, Pakistan did not have a well-organized emergency medical system. Rescue 1122 was launched as a professional emergency service and has been able to achieve an average response time of seven minutes, comparable to developed countries. Some of the key factors for its success include local production of vehicles, training of instructors to certify emergency medical technicians, adapting training materials to the local context, and creating branches to include fire and rescue service responses under a unified command structure. Rescue 1122 was established in Punjab following the success of the Lahore pilot project launched in 2004. Rescue 1122 is operating in all districts of Punjab and is providing technical support to other provinces of Pakistan. Rescue 1122 includes emergency ambulance, rescue and fire services and community safety programs. It may be recalled that last year, in a tragic incident in Rawalpindi, an operation continued for several days to search for Colonel (retd) Ishaq and his 25-year-old daughter, who were swept away by a flood from a private housing society. Relief agencies of Rawalpindi, Islamabad continued to conduct search and rescue operations at different locations. Rawalpindi Rescue 1122 diving teams, CDA staff and other agencies are also conducting search operations at different locations in the Swan River. The year 2025 was the busiest year for Punjab Emergency Service Rescue 1122. In the year 2025, Rescue 1122 responded to more than 2.499 million emergencies in a timely manner and provided rescue services to more than 2.882 million victims. Rescue 1122 Punjab responded to more than 492,000 road traffic accidents and 28,773 fire incidents. More than 470,000 people were rescued in floods through more than 1,500 boats. 2.6 million people and more than 2.1 million animals were evacuated to safe places. According to Secretary Emergency Services Dr. Rizwan Naseer, in the year 2025, the Air Ambulance Service transported 190 critically ill patients from remote areas to major cities for better care. The incident of a woman and a girl falling into a sewer hole has shattered the concept of a safe city in Lahore. Speaking just two days ago, Minister of State for Interior Senator Talal Chaudhry said that Pakistan is the fifth largest country in the world and crimes occur all over the world, but Lahore is safer than London. The concept of a safe city in Lahore is a joint commitment of technology and police force to provide a sense of security to citizens and make the city crime-free. The concept of a “safe city” in Lahore is to prevent crimes and ensure the safety of citizens through modern technology, surveillance of CCTV cameras, and prompt response by the police. According to the survey, Lahore has been included among the safest cities in the world. This project is important for establishing law and order in Lahore. The concept of a safe city involves monitoring crimes and traffic violations with the help of thousands of cameras. With the help of modern control rooms, the police are able to reach any untoward incident within minutes. Lahore is one of the 37th least crime cities in the world. This project is designed to make Lahore as safe as other international cities.Lahore has been ranked as the 37th least crime and 63rd safest city in the world, creating a new global record in the 2025 Crime Index and surpassing 249 cities in the world to achieve a prominent position in the global security ranking.
According to the Numbeo report, Lahore has also surpassed major cities of the world such as New York, London, Paris, Washington DC, Mexico City, Tehran, Istanbul, Rome, and Jakarta with this remarkable achievement. According to the report, Lahore has been compared with many other famous and large cities such as Mexico City (67.5), Dhaka (62.3), Washington DC (60.4), New Delhi (59.1), London (55.1), Paris (58.0) and New York (50.7), whose security situation is lower than Lahore. These figures highlight the profound changes taking place in the city, which is being credited to the modern strategies and security measures of the Lahore police force. It is worth remembering that the incident of the woman and the girl falling into the sewer hole took place at Bhati Darwaza. Bhati Darwaza is one of the important gates placed at various points in the wall surrounding the ancient Lahore, Bhati Darwaza, which is located towards the shrine of Syed Ali Hajveri. It is attributed to the Bhat tribe who settled together inside this gate of Abadi Ayaz after the invasion. Inside it is the Bazar Hakiman where famous doctors used to live. It is worth remembering that during this time, before the Basant festival, the Walled City Authority, acting on the orders of the Lahore High Court, has completed a survey of dilapidated and dangerous buildings in the historic walled city. According to the survey, a total of 346 buildings in Lahore have been declared dangerous, out of which 183 buildings have been declared irreparable while 163 have been declared repairable. It has been reported that 92 of the most dangerous buildings have been evacuated, but 254 buildings are still occupied, which continues to pose a threat to life. According to the authority, 103 of the occupied buildings are beyond repair while 151 are repairable, while 80 of the evacuated buildings have been declared for demolition and 12 for repair. The authority says that the roofs of these unsafe buildings are not at all safe for kite flying during Basant. The authorities have started measures to ban the use of roofs, including displaying warning notices and putting up awareness banners. To prevent accidents during Basant, the report recommends that dangerous areas be sealed, police and paramilitary forces be deployed and additional security measures be taken with the cooperation of the district administration. The district administration has issued a list of dilapidated and dangerous buildings in the city, according to which 59 buildings located in 9 towns of the city have been declared dilapidated and uninhabitable. Out of these 59, the highest number of 33 buildings are located in Data Ganj Bakhsh Town, out of which 26 buildings are privately owned. Of the buildings included in the list, 46 are residential while 12 are commercial in nature. The administration says that 22 buildings are such that repairs are not possible. According to the administration, people are still living in 44 of these buildings. Notices have also been issued to vacate the relevant buildings in view of the danger. It should be noted that 27 people were killed last week when a five-story residential building in Karachi collapsed. After this fatal accident, there was a wave of concern in all major cities of the country regarding the safety of residents of buildings that are being used in a dilapidated and dangerous physical condition.Lahore is one of the famous, ancient and beautiful historical cities of the world. According to tradition, this city dates back to the pre-Christian era. The holy book of Hindus states that Lahore was founded by Loh, the son of Ram, but the history of Lahore is first mentioned in the book “Hudud-ul-Alam” published in 982. Shah Hussain Miran Zanjani visited Lahore along with his two brothers during this period. Some time after his arrival, Mahmud Ghaznavi defeated the Hindu king Jaypal and captured Lahore, and Mahmud Ghaznavi’s slave Ayaz built a fortified fort in Lahore for the first time. After this, an important milestone in the history of Lahore was the construction of the Lahore GT Road by Sher Shah Suri. With the construction of this road, Lahore was not only connected to the important cities of the subcontinent, but after its completion, the importance, fame and size of Lahore city continued to increase. At one time, Lahore was considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and at another time, this city was a victim of looting and was seen as a picture of destruction and ruin. When the Tatars plundered and destroyed the city of Lahore, the Mughals rebuilt the city and made it one of the most beautiful and developed cities in the world. A wall was built around the city and 12 gates were built to enter it. A river flowed outside the wall and a beautiful garden was built along the river. The timeless buildings built during the Mughal era such as the Badshahi Mosque, Lahore Fort, Shalamar Garden, Jahangir’s Tomb and Wazir Khan Mosque are still a source of pride for the city of Lahore today.
The city was again devastated during the Sikh era. A large number of the nobles and nobles, especially Muslims, who had been living there for centuries, were forced to flee the city and many of the beautiful historical buildings, shrines and mosques of the city could not be protected from looting. At the end of the long dark century from 1750 to 1850, when the British took over the rule of Punjab, a new chapter in the development of Lahore opened. The British started constructing numerous modern buildings in Lahore. Railway Station, Punjab University, Town Hall, District Court, Government College, Museum, High Court, GPO, Montgomery Hall, Aitchison College, Kinnaird College, Mayo Hospital, Mayo School of Arts, (later National College of Arts), Tollington Market, Assembly Hall and many other buildings were constructed. A beautiful blend of British, Mughal and Islamic culture is seen in all these buildings.
The period of 55 years from 1860 to 1915 proved to be a period of peace, progress and prosperity for the people of Lahore. During this period of the British, a modern, beautiful and new Lahore emerged outside the walls. Undoubtedly, this period was the period of development and rise of Lahore. The railway system in Lahore started in 1861. In 1912, electricity was provided in Lahore city. The telephone system was started. In 1912, electricity was provided in Lahore city. The telephone system was started. Wide paved roads, sewage system, provision of clean drinking water, establishment of municipal committee for sanitation, establishment of Lahore Improvement Trust for development of settlements under planning within urban limits, judicial system for provision of justice and a wide chain of schools, colleges and universities were started to provide education to the common man. The miracle of this educational era is that great personalities like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Quaid-e-Azam, Allama Iqbal, Maulana Muhammad Ali Johar, Maulana Zafar Ali and Maulana Maududi etc. were born. During this era, people from Punjab University and Lahore were awarded the Nobel Prize. But after independence, there was a famine. After the formation of Pakistan, Lahore city has lagged far behind many ancient and modern cities of the world in the race of development. Dubai, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur which were very backward compared to Lahore in 1947 are today highly developed cities.