Gul Plaza blame-game

In the wake of the recent PIMS tragedy wherein 14 infants lost their lives to institutional neglect and intentional maladministration behind the excuse of a fire, the Gul Plaza incident from earlier this year has once again gained centre stage - without meaning to.

Ostensibly, the judicial commission set up by the Sindh Government to investigate the fire had already handed over a conclusive report at least four months ago, but the public remained unaware. Clearly, a looming fear of the citizens of Sindh demanding accountability for their own tragedy motivated the government to finally, and secretly, release that report. You would think the secrecy would at least be attributable to a substantial conclusion but much like most investigative reports in this system, it was rife with vague language and the infuriating lack of a pointing finger.

According to the report, the Gul Plaza incident was a culmination of "municipal and provincial structures, across successive periods" being inadequate in their performance for "dense commercial urban development". The phrase 'across successive periods' rids the current system of any and all responsibility and flings it onto a metaphorical, abstract monster born at an undefined time.

Is it not the responsibility of whoever is in power to find out what is broken and then fix it? Is it not the responsibility of current elected officials to offer citizens the safety and security that they had long been denied? If every single government frees themselves from the supposed shackles of transparency and accountability for the public, a political seat is then entirely meaningless. All it stands for is power, and power in Pakistan has never been on the side of the citizens. The point of a democratic nation is then lost amidst an extensive and harmful blame-game.