AFTER the LDA Plaza in Lahore, we have witnessed another tragic incident of school van fire at Gujrat, claiming many innocent lives within a month in Punjab. Both incidents reflect the utter negligence and complete failure on the part of the government in ensuring the required safety standards in the country.

Regrettably, public safety has been nobody’s cup of tea here. So, moving around Pakistan gives the feeling as if we are watching the 1920s black and white film Safety Last in which various characters are seen performing some dangerous stunt all the time.

In fact, we, as a nation, have become habitual of doing things on the basis of ad hocism.

Motorcycles were invented to carry only two passengers, but we have converted them into carts, carrying up to 10 passengers in the form of Chingchi rickshaws.

LPG cylinders are made for domestic cooking needs but we have managed to fit them into moving vehicles.

Likewise, forklifters are designed to lift and carry goods. Therefore, escalators or a ladder should be preferred while climbing to the stage to address a public rally. Before raising the slogan of ‘change’, we should never forget that change first happens in the minds.

All developed and changed nations in the world have reached this state by adhering to discipline and some golden principles and recognising the worth and sanctity of human life.

In fact, the death toll due to these tragic accidents is far more than resulted in terrorist activities across the country. So, ignoring safety standards is an act more inhumane and crueler than terrorism that we readily and repeatedly condemn every day.

Now it is time we went beyond condemning unfortunate incidents and only ordered inquiry afterwards. The principle of ‘safety first’ should be incorporated into our lives at individual as well as at national level.

All the legislation, governmental and individual acts should be guided and subordinated to this basic principle. By ensuring this, we only can prevent other dangerous and tragic incidents like the one of Gujrat children van explosion in future.

MOHSIN RAZA MALIK
Lahore

Some suggestions

THE Gujrat bus tragedy is an incident we all will remember for a very long time to come. To ensure such incidents do not happen again, I have a few quick suggestions.

All public transport should be inspected and issued a certificate, along with a sticker. The sticker should be placed prominently on the windscreen. The sticker should have a tracking number which can be verified from a website or by SMS using a mobile phone.

In this way passengers and the traffic police can easily verify the details, including forgery, vehicle number, date of issue/expiry, etc. This certification should be made mandatory for all public transport and issued free of cost to encourage inspection.

Mobile inspection should also be deployed that can inspect and issue the certificate on the spot. A telephone hotline should also be put in place so that any complaints can be lodged by passengers. The same service should take reports of any hurdles created by the certificate-issuing authority.

Three months’ time should be given to get vehicles inspected and any vehicle found without a sticker after this period should be impounded and fined heavily.

I am sure a lot more can be done and added to the measures mentioned above.

KAMRAN PARACHA
Islamabad