Blocked roads

The civilian and military elite must stop behaving like monarchs and must begin to respect those who elect them.

In countries such as Pakistan, the military and civilian elite often bend, break or altogether ignore the law when it comes to self-preservation. Closure, block-off or suspension are often the preferred tools to blunt or neutralise a perceived threat. In Peshawar, for instance, the British-era complex housing the corps commander, straddles the major artery that connects the old town with the Cantonment. Adjacent to the only five-star hotel of the beleaguered city, the corps commander’s residence also overlooks the extremely busy Judicial Complex, as well as the government secretariat. Inconvenienced commuters often ask why, instead of creating additional security barriers inside the huge residence, the extremely busy thoroughfare has been truncated? Already congested, a few hundred metres of the road leading to the residence is occasionally blocked and traffic is diverted to the other side of the road. But this section of the road remains closed — daily — from sunset to early hours, and one side functions as a two-way road.

The barricading of the US consulate in the city tells a similar tale of blatant disregard for the public at large. Routes leading up to the consulate are not only highly guarded, but also dotted with security barriers — erected with or without the consent of the authorities. This has turned the area into a virtual military zone.

Some 40 kilometres south of Peshawar, short of the Kohat Tunnel, you come across a similar situation; a section of the highway has been closed and the other side has been converted into a two-way road to secure a military-led Frontier Corps facility. The heavy traffic emerging out of or heading towards the tunnel is forced to move on the same side of the road. Surprisingly, the military facility is large enough for constructing a protection wall or barrier inside the compound.

The Quetta Cantonment offers a similar sorry tale; here, commuters endure humiliating questioning, and at times, insulting physical checks by the personnel deployed there. This has also virtually turned the British-era Lourdes Hotel into a prison because the hotel can only be accessed by going past the security check posts. On every visit to Quetta, you come across new regulations and barriers — all in the name of security. And ironically, hardly any of these measures prevented terrorists from executing their plans. Most of these measures also reflect the reactive nature of state institutions, which work to the great inconvenience of the public. Preemptive surveillance has yet to take over as the most efficient way of countering anti-state forces.

Similarly, cordoning off roads to facilitate VVIP movement is another nuisance that citizens must endure. Recently, I almost missed my flight to Karachi because the police had brought the traffic to a standstill around the Islamabad airport to clear the road for a VVIP cavalcade. And when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently visited Lahore, residents suffered similar hassles. The authorities simply went for the kill, closing certain busy thoroughfares without prior information.

This context also explains the bedlam around Bilawal House in Clifton, Karachi. On the face of it, the PTI-led protest against the protective wall next to Bilawal House appeared ill-timed and politically motivated, but the premise of it is certainly fine. The protest flows from the basic rights of citizens to unhindered movement in public places. What played out on the road between PTI and PPP workers in Karachi was ugly and uncalled for. But it also exposed the propensity, even among top leaders, to use violence as the preferred way of protest.

This episode also underscores that closing public space for the common people to create safety valves for ‘elected VVIPs’ is not in sync with the public interest as enunciated in the Constitution. The civilian and military elite must stop behaving like monarchs and must begin to respect those who elect or select them into positions of power. They must safeguard the public’s interests, not boot it.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2014.

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