They say, “If wishes were horses then beggars would ride,” or better still easier said than done.
If good and honest intentions would solve all our problems then all would bode well for the country.
However, the harsh realities of life are painful and hard to accept as corruption is endemic permeating our very system, gnawing away at the entrails of the nation.
The worst affected from the scourge of corruption are the poor people who fall prey to the system and are consumed in the vortex of this evil
A glaring example of this is the sad tale of the rickshaw driver in Karachi who had become a victim of police extortion and had to part with Rs100 per day or face harassment from our law-enforcing personnel. The poor rickshaw driver out of sheer desperation and frustration had no other recourse other than to self-immolate publicly to draw attention to his miserable plight.
The poor chap eventually succumbed to his injuries after a harrowing ordeal.
It is true that collective memory is short and with time the incident will be water under the bridge.
The question is how long? How long will we as citizens of this country continue to have an apathetic and callous attitude towards such problems so long as they do not affect us.
This tragedy is a wake-up call for the IG Sindh and the Sindh government, not to mention a clarion call for the federal government.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and the system has to be completely overhauled and reformed for the good of the country.
We owe it to the poor rickshaw driver and his family for no one must be feeling more desperate and anguished as them.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2018.
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