Of good roads

Published December 18, 2012

Of late I have been travelling across Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa mostly by road. These roads are a joy to drive on. Recently I went from Islamabad to Peshawar on M-1 and returned in the evening. It rained all the way.

I could not help but notice that all the rain drops would fall on the screen, flatten out, convert into a sphere and because of the car speed would travel from the bottom of the wind screen to the roof top smoothly. These hundreds of water droplets would then convert into colourless Tadpoles with a spherical head and a long watery tail.

The M-1 road between Peshawar and Islamabad is probably the best I have travelled in Pakistan so far. The smoothness of the road can be measured by the fact that these hundreds of tadpoles would maintain their perfect vertically trajectory without anyone of them overtaking or colliding with the other. Since there are no bumps on the road, no tadpole jumps over its predecessor. Same would probably be true for M-2.

It has been exactly 15 years since M-2 was built. One hopes to see similar roads in Balochistan and Sindh where other Pakistanis can enjoy tadpoles on their windscreens during the rain.

S. NAYYAR IQBAL RAZA Karachi

Opinion

The Dar story continues

The Dar story continues

One wonders what the rationale was for the foreign minister — a highly demanding, full-time job — being assigned various other political responsibilities.

Editorial

Wheat protests
Updated 01 May, 2024

Wheat protests

The government should withdraw from the wheat trade gradually, replacing the existing market support mechanism with an effective new one over the next several years.
Polio drive
01 May, 2024

Polio drive

THE year’s fourth polio drive has kicked off across Pakistan, with the aim to immunise more than 24m children ...
Workers’ struggle
Updated 01 May, 2024

Workers’ struggle

Yet the struggle to secure a living wage — and decent working conditions — for the toiling masses must continue.
All this talk
Updated 30 Apr, 2024

All this talk

The other parties are equally legitimate stakeholders in the country’s political future, and it must give them due consideration.
Monetary policy
30 Apr, 2024

Monetary policy

ALIGNING its decision with the trend in developed economies, the State Bank has acted wisely by holding its key...
Meaningless appointment
30 Apr, 2024

Meaningless appointment

THE PML-N’s policy of ‘family first’ has once again triggered criticism. The party’s latest move in this...