No 1 in philanthropy: Shaniera Akram on Karachi being ranked as one of the least liveable city
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s global livability index ranked Karachi as the 168th least livable city out of 172 cities worldwide, beating only Tripoli, Lagos, Algiers, and Damascus. Activist Shaniera Akram, when read about the news, took to Twitter to laud the 25 million residents of the city for running the city solely on “philanthropy, charity and good will.”
Akram retweeted a news publication’s tweet announcing Karachi’s listing in one of the worst cities and wrote, “Respect to all 25 million who call Karachi home!”
— Shaniera Akram (@iamShaniera) June 24, 2022
Without directly referencing it, she took a dig at the useless authorities and gave a shout out to the people of Karachi and their big hearts. “What residents of our city have given and donated over the years is just outstanding. Karachi has survived because of people's hearts. Top 5 worst cities to live in, but number 1 when it comes to philanthropy, charity and good will!”
The port city was ranked in terms of livability as the index examined over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors related to stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. The index scores cities in a range of 1-100, with 100 being the ideal score. Karachi scored 37.5, performing poorly on stability (20), healthcare (33), and culture and environment indicators (35.2). It scored averagely on the education (66.7) and infrastructure indicators (51.8).
This is not the first time the index has ranked Pakistan’s financial hub poorly, as it has been among the least 10 livable cities in the previous years too.