| November 05, 2007 | Monday | Shawwal 23, 1428 |
Sitting on the fence!
Graffiti issues
Parking problem has never been as acute in the twin cities as it is today. It has become severe in recent years with the accelerated rise in the number of vehicles, thanks to the availability of cheap financing. As the economic managers started rejoicing over their claims of economic growth with rising profits of the banking industry — coming mainly from the wide difference between high lending rates and negligible return on deposits, they really failed to appreciate that there should have been a simultaneous development of related infrastructure to absorb the additional load.
Roads are now overloaded with heavy traffic and drivers seldom find any space at any market place to park their vehicles and shop at ease. As a result, there is an increased tendency to encroach upon roads, footpaths and other free spaces available at public places for parking purposes and causing great hardships to the public. And neither there is a rule nor an exception for encroachments and illegal occupation of public places. The bureaucrats usually bar the general public from parking their vehicles at government offices and the secretariat by reserving slots for their own vehicles, simply by placing sign boards like ‘reserved for the minister’, or the ‘secretary’ etc and so on. Whether they can occupy public parking in this way is for these senior officers to decide.
Five-star hotels have encroached upon green belts and roadsides. For instance a five-star hotel in F-5 sector has encroached upon green belts on three sides in connivance with the city managers. Perhaps, Pakistan is the only country where the authorities have no authority to influence hotel owners or private businesses to develop their own parking facilities and readily offer public property for private use. In the adjacent Blue Area, private showroom owners have illegally occupied large tracts of green belts or parking lots developed on public expense to park their vehicles. Some of them have even ‘allotted’ to themselves large areas through barbed wires fencing. Private banks in the Blue Area have reserved places on roads for their executives although they are not entitled to that legally or morally.
In the Melody market too, the private banks restrict public from parking even though some of them may be their customers. An international hotel nearby has taken over almost the entire space on its back side for parking that was originally developed by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for public parking and should have been available to all and sundry on ‘first come first serve’ basis. Instead, large spaces remain reserved for hotels and banks even though these may remain unutilised throughout the day.
The spillover effect is that the general public is compelled to use roads for parking purposes, causing traffic problems. The city managers and the police instead of taking on illegal occupants of public places lift private vehicles of the general public and fine their owners for violation of parking rules. Why these rules cannot be applied equally on the powerful, ask the common citizens? How can a chief executive of a bank or head of a telecommunication company can reserve an area in a public place for his private purpose to the disadvantage of the common man with whose taxes such facilities have been developed, and are maintained and renovated every year?
The fact that city managers seldom apply rules and regulations while allowing private plazas to develop without making their owners to ensure provision of sufficient parking facilities for their own private use is no secret. While the hotel managements, showroom wallas and plaza owners invest millions of rupees on a number of other facilities to grow their businesses, there is no law — or the law is not applied if there is any — for them to spend some more and spare some space for parking.
In Rawalpindi, the issue is of a different nature. All the market spaces, other parking areas and even the roads developed and maintained on public expense have been given to the private contractors who are at liberty to charge whatever parking fee they deem fit. There is no check by the authorities or even the private contractors if their workers tamper with the receipts to increase the parking fee allowed by the main contractors. Interestingly, many people complain that if they insist on paying the original fee inscribed on the receipt, the contractors use their links with the police officials to lift their vehicles in their absence.
Are the people really so helpless that they can do nothing and have no legal remedy against the humiliation at the hands of private contractors and their paid government officials? Although the Lahore High Court has disallowed police to use private contractors to lift wrongly parked vehicles but the practice goes on without any check. No doubt, there is a need to regulate wrong parking that hampers smooth flow of traffic or causes difficulties for others but definitely this could not be left to the whims of mafias while the high-ups enjoy perks and privileges and can make any space as a reserved facility for their use.
It is the duty of all concerned officers of relevant departments to move around the city to see how the citizens who pay for their salaries, perks and other luxuries are being treated by the lower staff and the private contractors. And if they understand that they are from among the citizens, they should not remain indifferent to the sufferings of the public like colonial masters of the past who were interested in revenue collection only. A government that does not understand day-to-day problems of people and resolve them can hardly claim to be truly representative.
During the last few years the railway ministry has launched several new trains including the Sindh Express, Pakistan Express and the Jinnah Express. The latest among them is the Bhambore Express, exclusively meant for low-income travellers.
The reservation of seats for some amongst us has also become easier as our federal railway minister says people can now reserve seats at any booking agency, even with their credit cards. The renovation of many railway stations has also given a much-needed facelift to these places while the eateries and other stalls on platforms speak volumes of the current, burgeoning trend of public-private partnerships. Furthermore, the official claim that the Pakistan Railways has earned Rs3 billion in annual revenue, which is an all-time high, is also impressive.
However, despite all these supposedly inspiring achievements, the ministry appears helpless and the local government weak when it comes to the safety of the poor who have been living along railway tracks for decades.
The simple and obvious solution is to fence the tracks. Though a feasibility report of fencing — with Rs18 million as the estimated cost — was sent to railway headquarters in Lahore a few months ago, the long delay in its approval and implementation put in doubt the efforts of those at the helm of affairs. And with the stated record annual earnings, the railway authorities must certainly not be facing a shortage of funds as a hurdle, at least in this project’s implementation.
The officials blamed the delay in the project’s implementation on the poor who had encroached upon the railway’s lands, though the government still cannot absolve itself from the responsibility of giving protection to the lives of the people. Encroachers might have become a hurdle now, but methinks it’s the other way round: The absence of fences had invited the usurpers to encroach upon the railway’s lands.
It seems it doesn’t matter if this year’s figure of fatal railway accidents in the city crosses 60.
The media will routinely report any such accident when it happens, while officials will term such people ‘trespassers’ and will move on. After all, time’s a great healer. This is at least what has been the practice in 2006 and 2005 when, respectively, 48 and 65 ‘trespassers’ were killed after being hit by trains.
Under the Pakistan Railway Act, moving on rail tracks in areas without a railway crossing or overhead bridge is a crime. The violators are considered ‘trespassers,’ and as per the law, any person found in violation of this rule may be fined Rs2,000 or serve a six-month prison sentence, or both. However, railway police officials say public protests prevent them from taking any action and suggest that fencing is the only way to stop this gross, dangerous violation.
The densely populated areas around the Drigh railway station in the city are the worst-hit. Half of this year’s fatal accidents on the tracks had occurred here. Thousands of people cross the fence-less tracks on a daily basis and during the last eight years 297 have lost their lives while crossing the tracks here.
A hundred feet of open space on either side of the track is mandatory to ensure the secure movement of trains as well as to avoid the loss of life, according to the PR rules. However, thousands of encroachers have occupied this mandatory space in Karachi. In some densely populated areas this space has even shrunk to five feet. Mind you, children cannot be chained all the time. So sitting on the fence will never resolve the issue. The grave risk involved calls for initiating the project at the earliest.—HA
The credit goes to Maulana Abdul Sattar Edhi for introducing this economical mode of transport into the country. He imported the first Qingqis from China for transporting sacrificial goats and sheep which people donated to the Edhi Foundation.
Though it is also a specific brand of Chinese motorcycles, the generic term has been applied to all bikes – regardless of the marque – fitted with a container.But some local genius thought that if animals could travel in those vehicles, why couldn’t people. So, he converted the Qingqi into a spacious vehicle to ferry passengers over short distances.
The vehicle gained immense popularity in Lahore, where boffins churned out several designs of the contraption to suit the needs and tastes of various sections of the population. They also introduced the Lahore-made bodies to Karachi and other cities, where mechanics fitted them onto various makes of motorcycles. Now body-makers have started making the bodies here too.
Whereas Qingqis travel with passengers on Lahore’s main roads, in Karachi they are used only to take passengers from main bus stops to deep inside settlements. First the seats were set facing each other. That plan, however, failed as women in the city felt embarrassed sitting side by side or across from men. Now, mostly the seats are back to back, accommodating three adults on either side.
The greedy operators, however, load the vehicles with much more than their capacity. Male passengers not only travel on its strong iron footboard, they cling to anything they can hold onto. In one such vehicle I counted 14 adults, while they also had children in tow.
The popularity of this mode of transport has watered the mouths of the local excise authorities, who have repeatedly announced their plans to levy taxes on these vehicles.
If this is done, people who generally give a five rupee coin for a trip will have to pay much more and the public — as always — will ultimately suffer.—NA
Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali
Email: karachian@dawn.com
Sir,
Though the catchword of the times is democracy, unfortunately we – as a nation and as a city – lack the basic civic sense that is in my opinion an essential ingredient of that utopian ideal.
Although there are myriad examples to prove this statement, I believe that with the elections round the corner, one particular issue must be highlighted, especially for the sake of those citizens of Karachi that are less than enthusiastic about participating in the political process. The issue is that of wall-chalking or graffiti.
Recently, the night before Benazir Bhutto’s arrival in Karachi on Oct 18, some overzealous chaps decided to paint “Well come, well come, Benazir well come” on the wall of my house. Now considering that I live in North Nazimabad – a locality that was certainly not on BB’s itinerary that night – I failed to see the purpose of their ebullient, though diabolically spelt message. What’s more, the thoughtful souls were kind enough to also provide their name and political party’s unit number, just in case somebody wanted to get in touch and thank them for their fine effort.
Joking apart, I was a tiny bit peeved. But this was not the first time this has happened. The last time elections rolled round, someone painted a paean in praise of Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Altaf Hussain. Before that someone was kind enough to label a certain Muslim school of thought “disbelievers”, and used my house’s wall as the canvas.
Now don’t get me wrong: I’m all for free speech and all that jazz. But just don’t use my house, or anyone else’s for that matter, as your personal canvas.
While they are at it, maybe the political parties can spare a little time to instruct their jiyalas not to use people’s private property as tools of political expression. However, considering the host of other, more horrifying problems plaguing the nation, perhaps mine is but a little sorrow.
Nasrallah,
Karachi.
Turn the tide
Sir,
With reference to Concrete Jungle of October 24, I take my hat off to Irfan Malik for saying the things I always think about. Times have changed and so have customs; there has been an increase in fanaticism based on the belief that life is coming to an end.
Relying too far on the help of God is a sign of weakness, not of strength. One day, these fanatical hordes will realise their mistakes. I hope that more people with Mr Malik’s thinking continue to have their say; keep up the good work. We must return to being a tolerant, educated and progressive society and for once and for all, end the deeds of General Ziaul-Haq who laid the foundations of the course on which the country is headed.
Sajjad A. Khan-Sherwani,
Germany
Selective justice
Sir,
I was shocked to read about the illegal import of two tigers cubs by wildlife traffickers that wield so much influence that the Sindh Wildlife Department cannot touch them (‘Wildlife dept fails to nail tiger traffickers’, Oct 30). This was the second recent case in which the wildlife department proved ineffective against powerful criminals: just a few days earlier, Jamil Bugti, son of Akbar Bugti, and former Balochistan chief minister Zulfiqar Magsi were caught poaching in the Khirthar National Park. However, they were able to retain their illegal catch of partridges and sand grouse.
The writer of both articles deserves commendation for highlighting the issue. The wildlife department’s inability to pursue the case against the tiger traffickers is indicative of the manner in which the country is divided between the influential and the helpless. Until the law is applied equally to all citizens, regardless of political clout, there is little hope of ever seeing much progress in Pakistan.
Zareen Ahmed,
Karachi.
Dump the dumpers
Sir,
Built like Russian tanks and running wild like Spanish bulls sighting a red rag, the job of dumper trucks appears to be to scare small vehicles out of their way. They follow no rules and jump red lights at will, thundering along as they flout the timings enforced by the authorities for their movement in the city.
Last year, a dumper truck hit and damaged the car of a lawyer at Korangi Crossing. When he protested to the driver, the man summoned other drivers and beat the lawyer up. The legal fraternity held protest demonstrations and blocked M.A. Jinnah Road in front of the city courts. They sought action against the drivers’ brutality but the state institution running the dumper business refused to take the culprits to task.
The common citizen can’t even protest against these dumper operators. Through your esteemed columns, I suggest that the city government either ban them from the roads altogether or, if their presence is inevitable, restrict their movement to between 1am and 4am.
Nasir Abbassi,
Karachi
Media matters
Sir,
The column White Noise has addressed a number of issues related to the media, including the manner in which the editor dictates the tone and slant of a newspaper. Why don’t television and radio channels also display a cohesive editorial policy? Is it not acceptable in broadcast journalism, or is it not allowed by Pemra?
Secondly, issues such as the racism and sensationalism imbedded in the media must be addressed. The European media in particular display racism against black people, Muslims and Islam, although the foremost function of the media is to inform.
Abdul Basit,
via email
Scary city
Sir,
As a born and bred Karachiite, I find the Metro section’s coverage of the city’s infrastructural issues of particular interest. News reports related to various development projects or accidents are usually well-researched and presented. However, I would like to suggest that the section pursue certain major city issues such as the aging downtown sewerage network that has led to numerous road collapses in recent months. This poses a very real hazard to the safety of the rich and poor alike and steps must be taken to address the situation before a serious accident takes place. I read with great interest (and enjoyment) Irfan Malik’s Concrete Jungle of October 31, where he discussed the issue. But surely, there must be something that can be done to avert potential disaster and the media must ensure that the city fathers pay attention.
Gul Sattar,
Karachi.
Peoples’ power
Sir,
I am greatly saddened by the course on which General Musharraf set the country with his shocking Nov 4 decision. However, I am more seriously grieved by the citizenry’s response. A day after the imposition of martial law cloaked as an emergency, the country saw hardly any public protests and the power of the people was conspicuous by its absence.
I feel that the blame for this clear depoliticisation of the citizenry must also be laid on the state’s shoulders. With the shenanigans of successive government, the state has become a remote entity and Pakistanis have also distanced themselves from what is effectively a foreign power. In the current instance, no one has come out on the streets because everyone knows that their actions will be in vain: they will only earn themselves a baton charge. Meanwhile the authorities carry on with their shady business, heedless of the fact that they are holding hostage the futures of a hundred and forty million people.
Through your columns, I ask all Pakistanis to take power back into their own hands. The more space we concede, the more is available to anarchist elements. We must stay silent no longer.
Shafiq Sajid,
Via email city@dawn.com