Munaeem's Blog

A dusty footpath. Sindh Government Hospital. Midday heat curling the air. She couldn’t have been more than three. Alone. Wobbling along the pavement like it belonged to her. No hand to hold. No adult in sight. For a second I thought—maybe someone’s just behind her. A mother buying medicine? A distracted father paying the rickshaw fare? But no. She just kept walking. Unbothered. Or maybe too used to being invisible. And my heart sank like it always does in this city. Because in Karachi, a small girl alone isn’t a harmless accident. It’s a blinking red light. No One Is Coming Negligence. That’s the polite word. But what do you call it when a child is left vulnerable in the middle of a place where even grown men stay alert? We hear about abuse. Abductions. Disappearances. But before all that—there is neglect. The kind that starts quietly: A child left alone outside a pharmacy. A baby girl sleeping on a bench in a government ward while her mother begs for injections. A four-yea...