AFTER the bomb blast which almost killed Justice Maqbool Baqar, a Sindh High Court judge, I was deeply impressed by the professionalism displayed by the DIG, the Sindh chief secretary and Sharjeel Memon, who, if I remember correctly, is a member of the Sindh government or non-government since it has yet to show that it is able to govern.

The smart DIG explained that whatever he had said was not final, but it seemed that it may or may not have been a suicide attack, and it may or may not have been a remote-controlled bomb placed in a motorcycle or in a car. He said nothing about why is it that though our policemen very diligently search every motorcycle and car with unveiled women passengers, they were not able to spot this motorcycle or car.

Maybe they were on the lookout for vehicles with unveiled women passengers at the time, because they never see such creatures in their villages.

He didn’t say why the cops were not able to intercept the bomb-carrying motorcycle, even though they stop hundreds of motorcyclists daily, extracting money from those drivers who don’t have all the documents required to be carried on their persons.

The chief secretary was also very professional, asking people to cooperate and to stay away from the site of the blast, but he did not say why his government has not been able to do anything to prevent these blasts, which have been occurring regularly for more than 20 years now.

As for the minister, he said the usual stuff about how no one would be allowed to carry out more bomb blasts as if the terrorists needed his permission, but again, did not explain why his party’s government, which has been in charge of Karachi for the past five years, did practically nothing to improve security in the city.

Perhaps, he thinks that improving security means allotting six to 10 police mobile vans to every parliamentarian and VIP, rather than using policemen on the streets, to be on the alert for suspicious vehicles.

Oh no, that would mean asking the police to serve the people, which, as every government functionary believes, is against the spirit of the Constitution.

I believe that it would be a good thing if the province’s capital is shifted to Larkana or Nawabshah, at least we will have more police on the streets rather than dozing outside the houses of our ministers and VIPs.

SHAKIR LAKHANI Karachi