Normalised tragedy

For Pakistan's coal miners, the greatest danger has never been the darkness beneath the earth but the indifference above it. Negligence this time has cost the lives of 34 workers in the Sorange coalfield near Quetta, where a methane gas explosion triggered a fire, collapsed two mines and trapped dozens underground.

This was a preventable disaster in an industry where safety regulations are routinely ignored and accountability rarely extends beyond the announcement of compensation and yet another inquiry. Pakistan's coalfields have witnessed this repeatedly, and every such accident serves as reminders that the country's miners continue to work in conditions that would be unacceptable almost anywhere else. Methane explosions are among the most predictable hazards in underground coal mining. Modern mining operations rely on continuous gas monitoring systems and proper ventilation. The absence of these basic requirements is either deliberate cost-cutting by mine operators or weak regulatory oversight by the authorities. Neither excuse is acceptable. Every major accident should therefore prompt difficult questions. Were mandatory inspections carried out? Were methane levels being monitored? Had previous safety violations been identified, and if so, why were operations allowed to continue? Unless these questions are answered publicly and transparently, inquiries will remain little more than damage-control exercises. It also must be realised that most miners come from impoverished communities with few alternative sources of employment. They descend thousands of feet underground because economic desperation leaves them with little choice, not because they willingly accept life-threatening working conditions. The least the state and mine owners owe them is a workplace where basic safety standards are treated as a legal obligation rather than an optional expense.

Compensation cannot substitute accountability. No amount paid to bereaved families can erase the loss of a breadwinner or absolve those whose negligence made the disaster possible.