Bomb blasts and road accidents

At the time of writing this column on an uneasy Friday evening, in a still more agitated state of mind, there has been nothing to ostensibly make Karachi any worse. No news of any disaster, no violent crime reported, no serious accident, no bomb blast. Of course the city is not at peace, I wish to clarify, in case that is the impression. The city is perhaps nervous, afraid, harassed, sad, even in pain. That kind of mood. How much can one bear, asks a voice within?

On the other hand, there are cynical, tougher types amongst us, who responded after the May 26 bomb blast near a private English school by saying that "this is routine, like a road accident, where people die and get injured. Have you noticed how the threshold of tolerance has risen due to the way the city has been battered in numerous ways, that now a bomb blast is evaluated on the basis of the loss of life and the damage it may have caused.

Sometimes, as in the case of the Pakistan American Cultural Centre, it is for the location of the blast. It makes you understand the security measures that have been in place for the American consulate on Abdullah Haroon Road, for example.

In a city that has an abundance of disturbing and dangerous themes, as well, what should one begin with? The federal and provincial budgets to come, of course, which are being awaited, and with those come other budgets from other organizations that will cumulatively spell misery and misfortune, if not everyday hell, that everyday prices usually bring in. Now with the print media, there is also the electronic media that do focus on the budgets.

As if to soothe and console the hapless citizen, there are these days large colour advertisements from official quarters, underlining progress that may have still not reached the grassroots level. We have seen such end-of-the-financial-year advertisements, whose impact has always been doubted, and whose credibility has been suspected.

So as one gropes for a theme, those of security and insecurity seem paramount, and it is understandable that there is all this security, that we see on the streets. It is scary, it is symbolic, it is real too. One would like to refer to the current, sudden closure of the Abdullah Haroon Road opposite the US Consulate, and some other roads like the Fatima Jinnah Road, and adjoining streets. Look at the impact that this closure has on a vast dense part of defunct district, south.

Dawn carried a photograph of the volume of traffic on Friday morning. It depicted very inadequately, the real frustration of the people, who were suffering because of the said closures, and there seems to be no hope of an early relief or solution to the bottlenecks that have been created. Those who can avoid the area are doing that, and those who cannot, for professional reasons, are suffering to say the least.

On Friday afternoon, around the time of Juma prayers, it was so heavy traffic congestion on Club Road and Dr Ziauddin Road that it wouldn't be surprising to know that people missed their scheduled Friday prayers.

Not just that. Everyday life has begun to get affected in and around the area, even when there is a protest day or a protest rally or procession that the city has in high frequency, reflecting the diversity and conflict of this society. There can be a protest gathering at the Nishtar Park, or in the Quaid-e-Azam's mausoleum area and the roads around the US consulate will get closed. Said some citizens, very candidly and in a measure of impatience, that "admittedly we need to provide security to the foreign missions in the city.

It is our moral responsibility too, but wouldn't it be a better idea if this US consulate is actually shifted, sooner than later, to some place in Defence or Clifton, so that the heart of the city is not regularly suffocated." They then referred to the letters to the editor, that have appeared in Dawn on the enormous inconvenience that is being caused ever since the security measures around the US consulate and some other missions like British Deputy High Commission, have been enhanced and continue to grow in fact.

That mirrors the state of the geopolitics in this part of the world and its more than 'trickle down effect' on Karachi.

Now this trickle down effect on Karachi is perhaps more than a trickle! If it is a trickle look at the consequences that are steadily, menacingly (read dangerously) spreading into our lives, I do not need to go into the grim details. Look at the kind of May that we have had. See the bomb blast, the violence, the election-related deaths and the bloody power riots.

The blast at the Karachi Port Trust, the blast at the Hyderi mosque at the Sindh Madrassah, and one can go on and on. It makes you wonder at the shaping of the Karachiites' mind, their subconscious and unconscious. Some argue that the Karachiites have become stronger with all this, others contend that they have become weaker because of all this.

It is a matter of interpretation. Perhaps? Do the Karachiites live in perpetual fear and uncertainty, and are their lives becoming that much tiring and trying because of the way in which insecurity is affecting their routines?

Let us be candid and honest enough to admit that we seem to have reached a stage, with reference to bomb blasts, that they do not truly surprise us. In fact, to a certain extent, and this could be a matter of contention and debate, that the news of disaster in Karachi, (bad news that is) doesn't upset city's routine on a large scale. If it happens in one part of the city, the other areas carry on with their lives as if nothing has happened.

For all that has happened (and some of it is of nightmarish proportions), ask those who have paid the price for it, there are some very strange seemingly incongruous social events happening. As if all's well. Perhaps all's well really and so print and electronic media advertisements that spell entertainment (like Lebanese Nights that has been publicised recently) are the reality. The rest is not.

What would we then call the rest? Perhaps just as well that a certain routine goes on regardless of the manner in which attempts are being made to bring life to a standstill, to kill, and to destroy. The will to remain normal?

Somewhere, earlier today, I have referred to the budget, that will be announced by the federal finance minister on June 5, and that will be followed by Sindh Budget. The news and speculation, so far on this score, with reference to prices, is that there is no feel-good factor available yet.

There is tall talk that the benefits of all the cheer of the national economy has to reach down to the ordinary man, the average Karachiite, in our case. It has to be reflected also through the level of security that is provided to him and his family. He should be treated with such decency and a measure of justice that makes him feel upright and dignified. The Karachiite today walks wearily in the shadow of fear and a climate of agonising concern. On all counts.

I could talk of the water theme here. From what has been happening in Hyderabad (where people have died and hundreds at least have been affected in varying degrees of illness), on the quality of water that the citizens have been supplied by the concerned department, there is a natural fear that this city has. Will that happen here too? can that happen here if you take into account the infrastructure that the Sindh capital has. Water and sewage get mixed and we fail to take remedial measures. We all know this, and we live with it. There is no feel-good factor on this count too.

Perhaps, one has wandered into a difficult terrain today. A certain waywardness of direction as one has wondered about assorted themes in a context where bomb blasts have injected a new anxiety or dread of how one should tread in these times. Indeed these are far from being "the best of times."

Is this a drift towards "the worst of times," for terrorists and dissenters seem to strike not just in material terms, but also in the mind. Of course, the city suffers an economic setback because of these slowdowns and stoppages. But it is striking deep into the heart and wound can last longer, friend.

And it is being manifest in the coldness of cynical remarks, where one citizen felt that bomb blasts were like road accidents in a way. No way, he should realize, for bomb blasts have covert or overt messages. The two cannot be compared.