All very disgusting

Past and present provincial governments should be lined up and charged with criminal incompetence in Karachi.

If anyone in Sindh and its capital city, Karachi, during this past week had anything to cheer about, he or she deserves a bagful of medals. Even the fashion-show crowd and the shadi-bashers were surely inconvenienced, though they usually manage to happily rise above it all.

We know who these people are who have sprung to where they are via a most dubious ballot-box contest, and we know what they are, and we give them a free rein. How, just how, was the Zulfiqar Mirza tele-show and the sequels — the little-known Faisal Sabzwari and the well-known Mustafa Kamal and over three hours of the Pir of London — be justified as being in the national interest? It was all a media circus and a great illustration of the low to which the national electronic media has descended.

What is it with these people? Sindh is flooded with millions who are homeless and in distress and Mirza and his wife, whose constituency is in one of the worst affected areas of the province decamp for Dubai. Why, in whose interest? In that of their constituents?

The president of the Republic has a penchant for taking off for distant lands when the country, or parts of it, is in misery due to the complete lack of interest taken by the government, provincial or federal, following last year’s massive disaster, in ensuring that floods are controlled. Sindh is under water, his home province, and he trips off to London, ostensibly for a medical check-up. Well, judging from all appearances, his health is pretty robust. Could he not have patronised the doctors and hospitals of his own country for a mere medical check-up? Or, is it that with the vast majority of the population he too knows that whatever is in place is inadequate?

Our eminently forgettable, the prime minister was floating around in Iran, while millions of Sindhis, his fellow countrymen, were literally floating in the floods. But then who cares what the Multan man does? He makes not one iota of difference to the national interest — or for that matter to any interest, but that of himself and his family.

As for Karachi, the past and present provincial governments and administrations should be lined up and charged with criminal incompetence. They have indulged themselves in money-making schemes to ‘develop’ Karachi, building flyovers and underpasses, which add to the traffic chaos, as they encourage more and more private vehicles to come out on the roads, rather than concentrate on providing public transport for the 18 million inhabitants. They have completely ignored the sewerage system and the stormwater drainage system — because after all, there may not be that much to be made on the side on such projects, and then which VVIP wants to pull a curtain off a plaque which announces the inauguration of such an inglorious thing as a sewer.

The chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) has been sitting in Karachi for days, hearing the Supreme Court suo motu case on the target killings and various other murders, all of which, sadly, the people feel will come to nothing. As is the norm with this government, the CJP can order away to his heart’s content, but he cannot implement and the government and administration, fully aware of his limitations, have been getting away scot-free by more or less extending the two-fingered sign.

Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was treated to the joys of Karachi’s roads in the rain and even his pricey large powerful BMW, minus number plates, was unable to cope. Perhaps he should take suo motu notice of the fact of how the politicians and administrators, hand-in-hand with the various mafias, have managed to see that Karachi’s so-called development has been at the expense of its citizens, itself and its sustainability with money-minting being the sole aim.

When, if ever, will enough be enough?

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th,  2011.