Residents of Rawalpindi’s inner-city neighbourhoods announced a protest campaign after persistent garbage piles turned lanes and drains into sources of foul smell, mosquitoes and disease. Citizens say accumulated waste near Leprosy Hospital on Zafar ul Haq Road, Amarpura, Nai Abadi, Chah Sultan, Dhok Khabbah, Arya Mohalla and Millat Colony has become a daily hazard.
Zahir Ahmad Awan, chairman of the Citizen Action Committee, pointed to a growing number of refuse heaps across the city and accused the Rawalpindi Waste Management Company (RWMC) of criminal negligence. He said the RWMC managing director and other senior officers are effectively absent, leaving only sanitary workers at complaints centres while chief sanitary inspectors and senior operations managers cannot be found.
According to the residents’ complaints, RWMC staff frequently work from home and supervisory presence on the ground is minimal. Despite a large municipal budget, Awan said operational performance is near zero, with broken collection vehicles stacked in workshops and service trucks running in poor condition, emitting smoke and failing regularly. Damaged vehicles are often towed to workshops tied to other trucks, further reducing daily collection capacity.
Citizens criticised the slogan of a “Clean Punjab” as largely limited to media narratives while inner-city drains and lanes remain choked with refuse. In response, the Citizen Action Committee declared plans to hold protest camps in every union council, mobilise neighbourhood residents and carry out coordinated cleanup actions to free the city from garbage, stench, mosquitoes and the risk of disease.
The campaign includes a direct appeal to the Chief Minister of Punjab to immediately suspend the RWMC managing director and other allegedly incompetent officials and to appoint honest, duty‑minded officers who can restore effective waste collection and sanitation services. The protesters say Rawalpindi sanitation must be restored urgently to protect public health and daily life in the affected communities.
