Women and children were in search of food being distributed free of charge.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari ordered an inquiry after at least 18 women were killed in a stampede yesterday as free food was distributed in the southern city of Karachi.
Zardari told the provincial government to appoint a High Court judge to lead the probe and report within a week on who is responsible for the tragedy, the official Associated Press of Pakistan said.
The president “took serious note of the poor arrangements to manage huge crowds†and said local authorities should have ensured the distribution was “smooth and safe,†the state-run news agency said.
The stampede occurred as flour, lentils and other goods were being distributed at a makeshift stall in the port city of 18 million people, according to the Edhi Foundation, the nation’s biggest ambulance service. About 25 people were injured, spokesman Mohammad Qamar said.
The stall was set up without permission and the person responsible was arrested, Police Inspector Shebaz Ahmed said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Two-thirds of Pakistan’s 160 million people survive on less than $2 a day, the World Bank estimates. With the global recession, economic growth in Pakistan has slowed to 2 percent in the year to June 30, down from an average annual 6.8 percent during the previous five years.
IMF Loan
The International Monetary Fund last month agreed to increase a loan to Pakistan to $11.3 billion from the $7.6 billion approved in November to bolster growth.
Yesterday’s deaths in the crowded Karachi neighborhood of Khori Garden were caused by suffocation, Agence France-Presse reported, citing police.
The stampede was triggered when a private security guard, responsible for ensuring people formed an orderly queue, baton charged the crowd, AFP reported, citing police and witnesses.
In July, residents of Karachi took to the streets to protest a record power outage that lasted three days. Hundreds of people blocked off parts of the old city, burning tires and stoning police vans.
The city has previously been hit by riots because of power breakdowns and in June faced a fuel shortage as gas stations stopped working because of outages.