The tragedy of the Shikarpur blast

Trouble is that even the prime minister’s visit immediately after the blast would have not been able to save lives

Brutal as it was, the Shikarpur blast should have been a game-changer in Sindh. Sadly it wasn’t. What is more, the way the crisis was handled in the immediate aftermath is simply shameful. The victims did not have access to basic healthcare and life-saving facilities. They had to be transported to Sukkur or Larkana. Some reports suggest that they had to be carried on donkey carts or through similar primitive methods.

Activist Jibran Nasir and his civil society colleagues are protesting since then against the inept response of the provincial government. It is mainly due to the conscientious few like him that our attitude towards such incidents, the shameful denial we live in, is changing. He was arrested by the police while protesting in front of the CM House in Karachi a couple of days ago and after a short detention was released. It seems that the provincial government doesn’t care much about the bad press such unimaginative steps can generate. It is worth noting that the protestors are demanding nothing impossible. They are just demanding the implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP) against terrorists and arrest of hatemongers.

If you question lawmakers from the PPP, which is in power in Sindh, they most likely would accuse the federal government of not being helpful. They say that they were given no actionable intelligence. No federal minister rushed to the scene even though the prime minister was in Karachi. And then you realise also that there is not much clarity about the NAP’s implementation.

Trouble here is that even the prime minister’s visit immediately after the blast would have not been able to save lives. Perhaps, the VIP movement would have only exacerbated the post-explosion chaos and confusion. What we saw in this case is the absence of basic infrastructure to cater to emergencies. I was later to learn that there exists a structure that was meant to be a state-of-the-art hospital. However, there is no staff and no equipment to make it worth calling a hospital. And as if it was not enough, a PML-F member of parliament told me that as the representatives from Shikarpur are not from the ruling PPP, they are given no development funds.

The incumbent chief minister has been in office for over six years. However, when you inquire about development during his tenure, his party starts behaving as if you have an agenda against the PPP government. Its well-wishers kept reminding it to focus on better governance and delivery when it was ruling the federation. The same defensive attitude led to its downfall at the centre. Now reduced to a single province, the party needs to learn the difference between medicine and poison. As a moderate party, the PPP still has a lot to offer. However, its inability to deliver and its habit of taking its mandate for granted keeps dragging it towards the precipice.

Syed Qaim Ali Shah may have been an excellent politician. I wouldn’t know. However, he is the sole surviving face of the party in office. His advanced years become an easy target of the relentless propaganda of the party-haters. It is natural to age. But it is equally reasonable to retire and make way for younger talent. Right now, Shahji has become a symbol of an aging party that is incrementally getting divorced from ground realities. What needs to be remembered is that no one is demanding removal of the provincial government. Just a new beginning which might prove beneficial for the party as well.

As for the development budget, it is an inadequate method to improve governance. The main responsibility of a lawmaker is to make laws. Development on this level is primarily the prerogative and duty of the local government. The provincial government is supposed to ensure that local government elections take place at the earliest. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case for over six years and that failure alone contributes immensely to the failing governance standards in three provinces. The PPP cannot afford any further loss of face and needs to act.

The federal government also needs to spend more time with the provinces on the issue of the implementation of the NAP. If the National Counter-Terrorism Authority was functioning the way the National Internal Security Policy had envisaged, no one could complain about absence of actionable intelligence.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th,  2015.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.