On a train out of here

Published May 27, 2016
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.
The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

THEY will continue to build in the manner they know best. The others will continue to report, as if out of habit. Let them live their fetishes and let’s continue with our own obsessions in life and hope for the best.

This week’s windstorm in Lahore led to an all-too-familiar debate about whether it was usual for the city. Some routine laments were exchanged just as the television channels insisted that the rain and storm had provided a pleasant escape to the city’s heat-struck dwellers.

There was, over a stretch of time, some mention of the seven lives lost somewhere along the Orange train route. These men were outsiders who had been assigned the task of constructing someone’s dream Lahore for us Lahoris. They fell never to rise again when the concrete caved in. The next few days were spent in explaining whom this heavy, unwanted, cruel crumbled wall belonged to.

Last Wednesday was an auspicious moment in the life of the Punjab Assembly. It was the day Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif gave a rare audience to the members of the house. There were moving scenes, reportedly, of faithful MPAs swarming into his office for the short duration that he was there. But there was this pressing matter of a visit to the site of the windstorm deaths that competed as the highlight of the chief minister’s day.


There was some mention of the seven lives lost somewhere along the Orange train route.


This is how one of the news stories covering the occasion went: “…Shahbaz Sharif paid on Wednesday a visit to the site of the wall collapse in Manawan where seven labourers had died on Tuesday.

“Taking notice of the construction of a godown without permission, the chief minister ordered the immediate arrest of its owner.

“He said that the godown owner would also have to pay a sum of Rs3 million each to the families of the deceased labourers.

“The chief minister recalled that he had imposed a ban on the construction of factories in populated areas a few years ago but the order was openly flouted in this case.

“Questioning the performance of the departments concerned, the chief minister vowed that those responsible would not be able to escape punishment.

“He said that the Punjab government would look after the families and children of the deceased labourers.”

A more detailed, officially more up-to-the-mark account of the visit conveyed the chief ministerial sentiment more forcefully: it was a ‘surprise’ visit — without specifying who it was actually that Shahbaz Sharif wanted to catch unawares in the wake of the seven deaths a day earlier.

The report said “he expressed grief over the deaths of labourers and offered fateha for the departed souls”. He said “the deaths of the labourers … was a tragic incident, and the Punjab government sympathised with the bereaved families”.

Having completed the most frequent formality of offering condolences, “the chief minister promised that an all-out effort would be made for the provision of justice to families of the deceased while the persons responsible would be taken to task”.

The story ran for another few paragraphs, repeating the same information over and over again — as the reporting agencies tried to capture the significance of the chief minister’s act of solidarity with those in whose name he rules.

There was definitely a purpose and direction to his statements. Somehow, the factory had come to exist at a place where it was not required to. This was as comprehensive a conclusion of the probe as was desired. There was absolutely no need to look into any other, even if apparently related, matter. Matters such as why and how the tents the unfortunate seven labourers and their injured co-workers were occupying on the night were considered unnecessary and seemingly not deserving of discussion.

These labourers working on the dream Orange Line were a small group among many employed on the project. As the nationalists in southern Punjab would be keen to point out as part of their exercise to show the contrast between here and there, many of them came from the Seraiki belt and were related to one another. Is their mourning enough for these departed men? Have they, as dead people so often do, given a reason for some urgent stock-taking to decide what had caused their sudden departure from the scene?

Before anyone pointed a finger at the factory owner and the government departments which turned a blind eye to the wall that collapsed on them, serious questions had to be put to some others in the conveniently unexplained equation.

It was the responsibility of the contractor under whom the labourers were working to provide them with a safe and secure place to sleep in. It seems that the contractor failed to do his duty in this instance, and this suspected negligence must lead to an urgent review of all places where the Orange Line workers are camped.

Next, it was the job of those over the contractor to ensure that the workers employed in this purportedly transparent project were being properly looked after — reasonable lodging being a basic. It is not just the departments which allowed the unauthorised construction of a factory or a warehouse — the deeply committed government officials and consultants in the chief minister’s fancy orange train team had all failed him. Shahbaz Sharif had failed himself.

Leave alone the seven deaths, for these will be easily compensated for by the most generous government in Pakistan. It is the negative publicity that the storm killing has generated about the ultimate gift to the people that needed to be avoided. Blame and taunt the factory owner as much as you would; there are people in this city writing poetry and counting the human costs as yet more names are added to the list of those losing their lives in accidents associated with one man’s pet development scheme. That’s a bad enough sign.

The writer is Dawn’s resident editor in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2016

Opinion

Editorial

Afghan turbulence
Updated 19 Mar, 2024

Afghan turbulence

RELATIONS between the newly formed government and Afghanistan’s de facto Taliban rulers have begun on an...
In disarray
19 Mar, 2024

In disarray

IT is clear that there is some bad blood within the PTI’s ranks. Ever since the PTI lost a key battle over ...
Festering wound
19 Mar, 2024

Festering wound

PROTESTS unfolded once more in Gwadar, this time against the alleged enforced disappearances of two young men, who...
Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...