The vegetable and grain market at Sangla Hill is full of labourers who have gone past their working years.
ISLAMABAD: Recently, I happened to visit a vegetable and grain market at Sangla Hill, Islamabad. It is an ugly and dirty place. Flies, cats, dogs and humans all are equally abundant here. The market is extremely congested, unpaved and dates back to pre-Partition days. Despite a manifold increase in the population of the area, no one has ever tried to expand the market or build a new one.
In this market, many things are worrying but what struck me most were the aged labourers. The market is full of labourers who have gone past their working years. Many old people transport loads of vegetables on their heads in this age of machines. One very old and feeble man was pushing a handcart loaded with mulberries. In sweltering heat, his faltering body was prone to collapse. Not just the Sangla Hill market but all of Pakistan seems to have a large number of octogenarians who have to perform physical labour. I have seen such people in the Islamabad vegetable market in I-10 and in Raja Bazaar, Rawalpindi, as well. This is nothing but cruelty and is the natural outcome of the absence of a social security system in Pakistan. No government, past or present, can be exonerated from this crime of negligence.
Muhammad Ashtar
Published in The Express Tribune, April 27th, 2015.
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