Islamabad Etcetera: A Year On

A year on and ones return to this city was met by a hush that spoke not of its usual calm but a subdued, stilted air as if on hold. Expectant.

Ones advent was also met with darkness -- avenues in a simpleton’s dimness were without streetlights or for that matter traffic lights; roads as long stretches of gloom with gauntlet-like intersections. Not exactly the red carpet of welcome but at least thank God, this homecoming was not celebrated with firecrackers.

One cannot help but be invested in the cities they live in, the relationship being almost familial. And much like reacquainting oneself with friends and family after an absence, one revisits the old haunts, the potholes, the cordons, the mothballed constructions sites.

Such were the things one left behind, and without the condescension of an expat, one expected at least some holes to be filled. Yet as the tyre dipped into one and came out pleading, one thought has a year really gone by? Just who twiddled their thumbs and did nothing?

Ones gripe can forever be with the government but the cavil of this scribe should not be piled onto their already beleaguered cause. No, one must take issue with the CDA and maybe I am beating on an old drum but it pains one to see such a city wither. The question is not what is new, or what has been done, for that is as always too much to ask for, but what is? And keeping it that way.

It seems the authorities have lost interest in the city, having thrown up their arms in mock adulation to their predecessors thinking if it isn’t broke why fix it?

But it is broke, the potholes like pockmarks dotting the city, the half-finished public works like open guts, signs of a city far from perfect. Many public work projects remain unfinished.

The planned extensions to the Marghazar zoo remain in a state of abeyance, well past its proposed completion date. The 8th Avenue, a perpetual running battle with no side a clear victor, stands in question: will it ever be completed?

The road has been dug-up and repaired countless times, sometimes resembling a dirt road others a gravelly mountain pass.

Zero Point itself almost looks like abstract art; one side orderly and polished the other barren, dusty and undefined with a couple of car swallowing ditches and pits thrown in for good measure. This is the road first time visitors would have to take to enter the city, not particularly inviting one must add.

On the subject of roads the two main hotels of the city have appropriated main causeways for themselves allowing no man, beast or car through and in one particular case using the road as a car park.

Their security is entirely understandable, our inconvenience however is not. Are there no other alternatives available? These examples may indeed seem disparate but they point towards a malaise of the system. These projects have lingered and preyed on the mind for far too long. What is clear is that the present authorities are satisfied that nothing new be done nor any added effort be put in towards maintenance.

The most glaring deterioration by far has been the state of traffic, it degrading to a level that, without offence, is Pindi-like in its mess.

The zeal with which Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) was instituted and effected is now observably gone, traffic running amok with the police nary to be found.

The worst possible time to drive is when traffic lights are snuffed out. I would rather have the 1000 watt bulbs that light the Presidency and Constitution Avenue turned off and the power redirected to traffic lights than a pile up, after all that would truly be serving the nation, would it not?

Why Islamabad is in this state of stasis I do not know but regardless of what the previous government’s reputation, at least the CDA had a chairperson who did this city proud.

One says this without any political affiliations whatsoever nor any wilful disregard to the incumbent but the service done to the city under the last administration can never be forgotten. Like the application of the right varnish, the city’s true colour was brought to light and now a seeming and unfortunate downturn is on the horizon.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2010.