THE headlines of March 20th were again about another gory road accident. The tragic occurrence that cast a dark shadow over eleven families was the result of reckless driving. Two college girls and a young motorcyclist were crushed to death by an out-of-control bus driver.
Nida Afzal and Rubiya Mehwish were the students of Apwa College. The institution itself wears a sad look after the tragic accident. In one corner of the Principal’s office, lie the bags and books of the girls left on the road after the tragedy and were later collected by the college staff members.
Eighteen year old Rubiya Mehwish was a student of BSc. She was also the only child of her parents. Her life had already seen a lot of turmoil when her parents parted ways. However, like all teenagers her age, she too had high hopes and aspirations. She piously prayed five times a day and recited the Holy Quran. Her fellow student and aunt, Rafia recalls the sweet memories of a girl of whom she thought more as a friend than a niece. Rubiya’s favourite pastime was cooking and she spent her free time doing the household chores. Her mother who is a teacher by profession, passed on the interest to her daughter as she too intended to do her BEd after completing her Bachelor in Science. “She was always very keen to help her mother and even if she had some money, though a meagre amount, she would give it to her,” Rafia remembers. However, unlike girls of her age, marriage was something that she was not interested in and she had declined several proposals.
Of the accident Rafia tearfully recalls, “I saw, while standing with the other students, two buses tearing down in full speed from the ramp and hitting the girls. A moment earlier I had stepped back in anticipation, but many of us were in a state of shock as we saw a motorcyclist being run over by the bus.” Before the girls could gather themselves and recover from the impact of seeing the unfortunate motorcyclist being knocked down by the bus, two of them became its victims. Painful screams filled the air and blood was everywhere. Rafia was told that Rubiya breathed her last in the lap of her fellow students. “Her skull was crushed and had become soft as if no bones were there to hold it together,” she said.
Nida Afzal was the other girl who passed away. Her mother too is now left just with memories. “It is too painful for me to talk about my daughter, her dreams and ambitions,” says Mrs Afzal. The sense of loss of her only daughter was apparent from her sad voice. It will take sometime for her to recover from the shock that has shattered her family. After her elder brother, Nida was the second child. When Nida was born her parents were extremely careful to ensure that the child lived a healthy and long life. But fate had a very ugly twist in store for them. “Like any other mother I always used to warn her to be careful while boarding the bus and crossing the road, but that day she was just standing at the bus stop. She was not standing in the middle of the road. It can’t be her fault. It just can’t be,” Mrs Afzal heart-broken voice chokes as she tries to come to terms with an irreplaceable loss. It was Nida’s first day of BA Final. She was excited about the new books that she had bought some days back and looked forward to the new phase of her academic life. She wanted to study further. Her father a KESC employee, said that the tragedy which we were going through, was not the first one which had exposed the ugliness of our public transport system. He recalled the road accident which in 1985 killed Bushra Zaidi, of Women’s College. “Everyday people are killed, but do we see any effective steps being taken to prevent these accidental deaths?” Mr Afzal asks. We all know the answer to that.
Mrs Afzal continued, “Our daughter has left us forever, but what about those girls who were badly injured and were hospitalized? Until the day they fully recover you can’t measure the worries of their parents. What if any one of them is paralyzed for life? Wouldn’t it cause more anguish to the parents to see their daughters like this who were perfect just some days back?”
When the teachers at Apwa College were informed of the accident they rushed to the spot and made immediate arrangements to take the victims to the hospital. “We cannot describe how we felt when we saw our students, whom we had just seen in the class, lying in a pool of blood,” said Mrs Rehana Aziz, the Vice-Principal of the college. Though the students of the college wanted to call a strike in response to the one called by the transporters, Principal Prof Farzana Yasmeen Butt said that they have been given firm assurance by Nazim Naimatullah Khan that stern action would be taken against the bus driver. A case under section 302 of PPC has been registered against the driver, Mohammad Munawar, who by the way wasn’t even carrying his licence at the time of the accident. On his part, he maintains that the accident happened due to the break failure. But as we know, there exist lobbies that provide shelter to even those who are guilty of crimes. It has already been predicted that the case would be converted into section 319 of the PPC, which relates to unintentional murder or accidental deaths. And if it is confirmed that cause of the accident is the same as stated by the driver, than he would be exempted from paying Rs370,000 as Qisas to the heirs of each of the deceased.
The accident has left everyone in a state of shock. Most agree that the transport system needs to be overhauled. The drivers, who work under the influence of stimulants and drugs, carry the license to kill anyone under the wheels of their buses. Then with the help of powerful contacts in the corridors of power, they hush up the affair by saying it was a mere case of break failure. They need to be made aware of their responsibilities. Just like the driver of 5-C who is responsible for the deaths of three people.
