KARACHI, May 22: Over a thousand vehicles, including cars, buses, taxis and rickshaws, were held up for nearly two hours on several roads due to VVIP movement on Saturday. In the process, fuel ran out in some cars, an ambulance carrying a suffering patient got held up, and of course, a number of people could not keep their appointments.

Since the prime minister was supposed to inaugurate a function in a hotel situated at the intersection of Ziauddin Ahmed Road and Club Road, all roads leading up to, parallel to and from that point were sealed abruptly. Being an extremely busy junction the influx of commuters was ambiguously directed by a lazy waving of a policeman’s hand to find alternative routes themselves.

It was the same story the previous evening, when the esteemed VVIP decided to grace the city’s up-end restaurant at Zamzama. The main Zamzama Boulevard, which is also a busy junction -– especially on a Friday evening -– was summarily sealed off and cars parked in the vicinity were fork-lifted off to another place. On Sunday, too, the same thing happened and people who had parked their cars on Club Road suddenly found themselves on foot searching for their respective vehicles.

Are we magicians that we will conjure up alternative routes with the flash of a wand? Apparently that is what the traffic police believe. When asked what arrangements were made for the citizens -– i.e. the taxpayers who fund the salaries of all government officials, non-VIP and VIP – the DIG for traffic replied: “There was one alternative route available, but of course, traffic jams do occur when a road is closed and it takes time for things to clear out.” So it’s as simple as that! A few hours lost is no big deal. Fuel wasted is no big deal. A shortfall at work is no big deal! Ambulances, with critical patients, failing to reach hospitals is no big deal! Fire tenders unable to make it to their destinations is no big deal! And how is just one alternative route going to accommodate all vehicles re-directed from several other routes?

We were told that the VVIPs were supposedly concerned about the citizens facing so much trouble because of their movements and hence, traffic closures were apparently supposed to be discontinued. And we, the half-witted, gullible, and ever resilient citizens of Karachi, actually believed that. According to the traffic police chief, the movement has been curtailed. He says that whereas at one time (till last year) both tracks of Sharea Faisal used to be closed now only one side is closed! Considering the rate at which cars are increasing on the roads, the amendment does not count at all. Closure of even one section of a road for a small time-frame creates a huge jam. Saturday’s road closure was for at least an hour in advance of the actual movement and resulted in a jam starting from Shaheen Complex all the way to Sharea Faisal.

But the police officer contradicts and says that the closure was only for 15-20 minutes, whereas people stuck are willing to testify that the closure and the jam lasted nearly two hours. He further rationalizes by saying, “When a person is waiting, it always feels longer. It is only a matter of perception that the traffic was held up for hours!”

Whether the roads were closed for 20 minutes or two hours, the tragedy lies in the total unconcern for the welfare of the masses. Especially in Karachi, the citizens are just expected to complacently bear with every trauma and discomfort that is dished out to them because of lack of simple civic planning, be it a water and power issue, the electricity dilemma or the despicable mishandling of traffic. And because of the Karachiites’ ability to handle the toughest of living conditions, the managers and controllers of all civic institutions have become totally desensitised towards daily issues of inconvenience.

What will it take for officials to realise that safeguarding the citizens’ interests should be the primary concern for all government officials — be it the head of the country or the traffic controller. But the elitist and political mindset has warped the ‘job description’ of every official, whose only agenda has become to please the powerful and trample the public sentiment.

With the DIG traffic considering it normal for the public to face a half-hour’s jam because of sudden road closure, it is obvious that there is not any chance in the future either for the public’s trauma being taken into consideration in case of traffic chaos. No prior planning to ensure that such conditions do not hamper the people is even being contemplated.

Adding insult to injury, it is now being considered to levy the road-user tax on all vehicle users. How fair is it for us to burn extra fuel while sitting in jams to accommodate VIP security? Road-user tax is directly levied on each litre of fuel purchased. With diversions obviously increasing the distance covered and subsequently the fuel consumed, our added expense will directly increase the federal coffers, in turn adding to our economic burdens as well as mental anguish.

So as a VVIP whisks across and we sit and burn extra fuel, money and mental energy, we are only left to wonder whether it was simply our fault to have been born in a city which gives us no civil right, whatsoever.