| February 16, 2009 | Monday | Safar 20, 1430 |
Speed breakers in DHA
Tourism crossroads
When a VIP travels in the city a policeman on his powerful motorbike leads the entourage well in advance to signal all other traffic to clear the path completely.
This has been the practice for quite some time and Karachians have become well accustomed to it and have learnt to wait in traffic jams patiently for the normal flow of traffic to resume.
Surprisingly, these days another kind of advance warning is being made. In this case, advance information is being passed on, not to motorists but to small-time encroachers who block the streets selling their wares daily.
Karachi is a sprawling city with lots of commercial activities going on round the clock and space is of the essence for businesses to flourish. Markets from Orangi to Korangi and North Karachi to Keamari are full of street vendors, makeshift stalls and pushcart vendors running their businesses from dawn to dusk.
The city government launches anti-encroachment drives from time to time, with the city nazim personally checking on the results of the operation.
Only last week, while having a snack in my neighbourhood, a motorcyclist pulled up near a vendor and told him in a subdued voice only to be heard by my eavesdropping friend that the city nazim was on his way to check on encroachers and the vendors would be well advised to temporarily leave the area. A friend who lives in the Saddar area narrated a similar incident.
For the life of me I fail to understand why the good Samaritan’s forewarned the encroachers well in advance, but I guess Karachians have a fertile imagination and can draw their own conclusions.—Ahmad Ali
Mind your ears!
With book fairs becoming quite a regular affair in the city, one thought the younger generation was taking to reading. Sadly, this has not been the case.
When travelling in public (and even in private) transport it is common to see the youth using their latest gadgets, be they mobile phones or portable music players, and humming the latest songs. While it is hard to say whether it is a genuine interest in music or something else, but this is certainly a growing trend among the young. In Japan, on the other hand, it has been seen that during travelling, especially in the long rides of bullet-trains, young and old commuters do nothing but read throughout their journeys.
I have personally seen many who, because of continual exposure to loud music, have developed difficulties in deciphering low voices and distinguishing those of their acquaintances. Headaches, dizziness, nausea and sleep disorders are connected with various blaring noise-producers. In a society where laws are flouted brazenly, one can safely assume that the laws that prescribe long prison terms for producers of noise pollution remain largely unenforced. Regardless of the enforcement of the relevant laws, the educated youth of the country would do well to mind their own ears!—Hassaan Idrees
Patrol cars
It is good to see that traffic police have been provided patrol cars. The latest model cars are seen on Sharea Faisal taking care of the traffic problems of the metropolis. However, at times the purpose for which the latest cars or motorcycles and other gadgetry has been given to those who vow ‘To protect and serve’ at considerable expense to poor taxpayers is not served effectively. A week or two ago I saw a traffic patrol car in front of the FTC building on the main Sharea Faisal hoping to ‘catch’ as many violators as possible. What surprised me the most was that just a few metres away two cars had ended up in a minor accident and the occupants of the cars were engaged in a heated argument almost resulting in fisticuffs but the traffic cops either seemed to be completely oblivious to the whole thing or deliberately not bothered about the incident as they probably had bigger fish to fry.
A few days later a traffic patrol car was seen parked right in front the curved incline of the FTC flyover from where heavy traffic coming in from the Defence area flows in to blend in with the Sharea Faisal traffic moving towards the airport and Malir areas. The patrol officers did not seem to realise that in order to grab the would-be violators, mostly motorcyclists and coaches with whom a quick-fix deal is usually struck, they were literally blocking the traffic and creating a jam right on the curved incline. Motorists were blaring their horns away to no avail and there was considerable commotion due the apathy of the patrol car. Taxpayers do not mind dishing out their money to the government but in any civilised country where taxes are high it is generally believed that the quality of civic services being provided is excellent. Unfortunately, this is not the case in our country.—Rizwan Ali
Compiled by Syed Hassan Ali
karachian@dawn.com
Sir,
I would like to appeal to the DHA Karachi authorities to construct an adequate number of speed-breakers on the newly refurbished Commercial Avenue.
The laying of new drainage system and doing away of any median in between has strongly motivated our youngsters to treat this well-carpeted artery as some sort of runway. Reckless driving by these juveniles has not only resulted in serious accidents/collisions lately, but it has been seen that even harmless pedestrians are not safe.
A few days ago, a horrendous collision took place on the same road between the intersections of Khayaban-i-Rahat and Khayaban-i-Muhafiz, smashing the skulls of two pedestrians who happened to be young, madressah-going students. They were walking on the roadside, with no idea what fatal disaster was in store for them, despite maintaining a safe, normal distance from passing vehicles.
Before any other terrible incident occurs, the DHA should immediately commence construction of concrete speed breakers at proper intervals so that precious lives can be saved.
UMAR M. MAKHDUMI
DHA Ph V
Traffic police reform
Sir,
Why do the majority of traffic police officers have the right to issue challans in our country? I suggest that only a few limited traffic policemen should have the right to do so, as otherwise, every traffic cop tends to misuse this power.
It has been noticed that most traffic policemen hunt down motorcyclists to issue challans, who are let off after they pay a bribe.
I want to ask the head of the traffic police department why his department’s personnel do not take bold action against the following violators of traffic laws.
1) Smoke-emitting public and private vehicles.
2) Improperly registered vehicles (fancy plates).
3) Underage drivers.
4) Speeding and noisy vehicles (especially minibuses and buses).
5) Vehicles that do not follow the traffic lights.
Also, I strongly suggest revising the pay scale of traffic police officers. The starting salary should be above Rs10,000 and instructions should be issued that if anyone is caught taking a bribe, their services will be automatically terminated. Apply this uniform policy and then see how our policemen will follow.
ASHFAQ SHARIF
Soldier Bazaar
No man’s land
Sir,
At the dividing line between Phase VI and Phase VIII there lies a thin, long strip of DHA land which, for almost a decade now, has been treated like a ‘no man’s land’ as far as infrastructure and development works are concerned, although the area residents pay the same amount of CBC/DHA taxes as others.
Driving from the PSO pump to a restaurant, to the left of Khayaban-i-Ittehad, this 200 metre wide and 3.3km long strip is actually a part of Phase VI and not Phase VIII as most people believe.
The residents of this area were twice served notices from the administrator and vigilance branch of the DHA separately about two years ago and again in Feb 2008. The notices read: “… remove all flowers, greenbelts, trees and plantation along road medians for undertaking of road widening and infrastructure development works between Kh-i-Ittehad and Kh-i-Ghalib, including all adjoining streets …”
The development works should have logically been started from Kh-i-Ittehad. But ironically, all Khayabans before Ittehad as well as those beyond Kh-i-Tariq have been rebuilt. And even those beyond Ghalib, where construction of houses is not yet permitted, are under construction. The status quo still prevails in this area without any signs of the promised works staring in the near future.
May I humbly request the DHA to start and complete the promised and overdue infrastructure and development works in this neglected area immediately, or not to collect any taxes till their completion.
IJTIBA ZAIDI
DHA Ph VI
city@dawn.com
THE federal ministry of tourism is usually one of the last ministries to be filled by a minister after a new cabinet takes over.
This time it has taken almost a year after the general elections in February 2008 for a minister of tourism to be finally appointed.
Many believe, however, because of his getup, religious views and political affiliation, the person recently made our tourism minister is likely to keep the tourists away rather than attract them here.
Tourists would probably already want to keep away from us anyway.
After all, we are on the list of the top 20 countries in the world where tourists are least likely to want to go to.
Ranked 111th out of 130 countries in the 2008 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index and 103rd out of 124 countries in the 2007 Index, our country continues to have an internal security situation which is bad image for tourism promotion.
This image has not been helped at all by the recent execution of the abducted Polish engineer and the wanton destruction of schools in Swat.
Not surprisingly, 2008 is the second year running in which foreign tourist arrivals into Pakistan have fallen. From 898,400 in 2006, foreign tourist arrivals have fallen to 839,500 in 2007 and to approximately 804,791 in 2008 (the figure for the whole of 2008 has been projected from the available figure January to October 2008).
Externally, the tourism picture is not very rosy either. The UN’s World Tourism Organisation recently forecast that growth in international tourism in 2009 will be in the range of 0 per cent to a two per cent decline compared to the modest growth of two per cent in 2008, due mainly to the global economic slowdown.
Faced with this array of external and internal circumstances discouraging to tourism, little wonder the post of minister of tourism had no eager takers. All the more so, after what apparently happened to our tourism minister in the previous government: she got death threats and was forced to resign.
In any case, the ministry of tourism has never quite been a hot seat. There is no attraction of foreign aid, minimal investment and little name.
The silver lining in the cloud, as every report/write-up on tourism in Pakistan inevitably points out, is that our tourism assets are immense and our tourism potential is tremendous.
What we have not quite been able to figure out is how to capitalize on this tourism potential and turn our tourism assets into a sustainable employment generating and foreign exchange earning venture, like many other countries have done.
Not that we haven’t made noticeable efforts at tourism planning and promotion, particularly since the 1970s, but factors like lack of political will, bureaucratic ineptitude, religious opposition and politics, have slowed down considerably our efforts to develop the tourism sector.
Our first major crossroads in tourism policy planning occurred 25 years after independence in 1972 when the Bureau/Department of Tourism was upgraded and combined into the ministry of minority, religious affairs and tourism. Earlier in 1970, the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation had been established to develop tourism facilities in remote areas attractive to tourists.
It was not until in 1990 that we produced a National Tourism Policy outlining important incentives to promote tourism, including the accordance of industry status to the tourism sector and the granting of Deemed Export Status to the tourism industry.Putting this policy into practice proved more difficult than imagined, particularly with frequent changes in governments in the 1990s.
Meanwhile in 2001 a new Tourism Development Master Plan emerged. Unlike the 1990 Tourism Policy that contained specific measures, the 2001 Master Plan was more of an acknowledgement of the importance of promoting tourism and a reiteration of the resolve to promote tourism.
Then in 2004, tourism was for the first time given a separate status as ministry of tourism with the bifurcation of the ministry of minorities, culture, sports, tourism and youth affairs.
Finally in December 2007, the National Tourism Policy 1990 re-emerged, reprinted with an update based on the 2001 Tourism Development Master Plan. This policy can be viewed today on the tourism ministry’s website.
Despite the apparent odds stacked against us, the fact that we have been drawing in an increasing number of tourists from 2003 to 2006 is encouraging proof that we can succeed in promoting tourism.
Foreign tourist arrivals into Pakistan registered a gradual increase from 500,900 in 2003 to 648,000 in 2004, 798,000 in 2005 and 898,400 in 2006. This is equivalent to a nearly 80 per cent increase between 2003 and 2006.
What is even more encouraging is the fact that actual tourist arrival figures from 2003 to 2006 were more than the figures projected in the 2001 Master Plan, which were 374,000 in 2003, 511,000 in 2004, 661,000 in 2005 and 743,000 in 2006.
Also encouraging is the fact that actual foreign exchange receipts from tourism nearly doubled from $135.6 million in 2003 to $260.1 million in 2006.
Such successes have been achieved despite our many shortcomings in the tourism sector, e.g., the lack competitive mid-level hotel and motel accommodation, ATM machines accepting key international cards and a convenient and easily accessible infrastructure that can enable the would-be holiday planner sitting anywhere abroad to check out a destination in Pakistan, plan dates and make bookings.
Imagine how much more our tourism industry is capable of achieving if we had a more efficient tourism infrastructure overseen by a dynamic tourism ministry, and of course, aided by an improved internal security situation.
