Package culture

There is no benefit of having a free passage if passengers disembark into same chaos they left at the start of journey

When in doubt or difficulty — announce an uplift package. This seems to be the mantra of the current government and ‘packages’ are being announced right and left on an almost daily basis. The problem with packages is not the boxing, it is the contents, and so often what is in the box is at variance with what is printed on the outside. Thus it is that whilst we warmly welcome the Rs118.5 billion that the federal government is to provide for development schemes in Karachi, the proof of the pudding is going to be in the eating as this is not the first time that wagon loads of packages have been dropped at the municipal door, only to be found to be empty of anything but promises.

The Rs15 billion earmarked for the Green Line Bus Project may prove to be a blessing — but not before Karachiites have endured the same travails as the residents of Islamabad and Rawalpindi are suffering in the construction phase of the Metro Bus project. There is to be an upgrade, urgently needed, of the city water supply, two new power projects at Port Qasim and money for the acquisition of land for the new Karachi-Lahore motorway. This is all very well and doubtless will provide a lot of low-paid jobs for several years, but do these mega projects come at the expense of maintaining existing infrastructure? One wonders whether the city nullahs have been cleared this year in anticipation of monsoon rains and the accompanying floods. One might also wonder where the Karachi Circular Railway has got to in this welter of transport infrastructure — or has it finally been engulfed by encroachments? The positive possibilities of modern transport systems are negated when they are plugged into an antediluvian system that is both their feeder and their outlet. Ancient and modern do not coexist easily, and there is little benefit to having 20 miles of free passage if passengers disembark into the same chaos they left at the start of their journey. Packages by all means — but make them full, rather than stuffed with empty words.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2014.

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