KARACHI: Good governments pre-empt uncalled-for events. Bad governments react to them. Non-governments shroud their inabilities in ‘we-would-have-if’ statements.

Who doesn’t know that Karachiites have only one major recreational spot — the muddy shores of the Arabian Sea — to visit on national holidays? This Eid was not dissimilar in any respect. The authorities — the provincial government or the city government, take your pick — should have known. They should have known that the monsoon was around the corner and cloudburst could happen any moment. They should have known. So, two steps needed to be taken beforehand, much before the first day of Eid. First, the government(s) should have put a proper traffic plan in place. Two, they should have taken measures to counter the post-rain accidents — an effective water drainage system, more traffic personnel to guide the people to safer places in case they were marooned in the middle of nowhere, and instruct K-Electric to ensure its feeders and transmission lines did not go on the fritz once the showers came. Nothing of that sort happened.

On the second day of Eid, Tuesday to be precise, a bevy of motorcycles, rickshaws and cars headed towards the Seaview area, as they usually do every year. Most of them opted for the Clifton Do Talwar route that takes them to the recently built flyover along the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine. Some of the travellers were going to the shrine. A little before dusk the traffic bottlenecks were suffocating in that area. The road that leads to Dolmen Mall from the shrine was particularly log-jammed, so much so that the vehicles stuck there were hardly seen moving for many a minute. Now this was also the time when heat in the city had become unbearable, indicating that the rains weren’t far away. (The Met department too had predicted heavy shower). The authorities should have known better. They did not.

On Wednesday, the third day of Eid, the same exercise was repeated. A large number of people moved towards the sea using the same route — overloaded rickshaws, motorcycles with yanked-out silencers and cars blaring loud music. Around 6.30pm, it began to rain cats and dogs and it seemed as if the downpour wanted to teach us a lesson. Normally, for the people in the subcontinent, rain has a romantic nuance to it (countless Indian and Pakistani films are a testimony to the observation). Not on Wednesday, though. Fun-seekers and picnickers suddenly had a disturbing look on their faces. Now they wanted to return to their homes without causing much damage to their vehicles or mood. Not to be.

Since there was a big number of two- and four-wheelers on the roads, once the roads got wet riders’ and drivers’ lives became a struggle. Motorbikes skidded off the roads, cars conked out and, to top it all, electricity in several localities, including Clifton, went kaput. It was dark, as a result of which even pedestrian movement was not trouble-free.

The clouds relented in a couple of hours, but not before spoiling the party for the people for whom the sea is the only recreation. All of this could have been avoided. But only good governments take pre-emptive measures....

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2017