As masses, we are so unfortunate and cursed to the extent of being helplessly sacrificed at the altar of monetary benefits of the commercial and industrial vultures that have beeneating our flesh since 1947. Ours is the only country where you can deprive people of their hard-earned money, psycho-mental peace and physical health and, above all, lives in the name of Business whether it is the matter of banking, communication industry, tourism and travelling, insurance, property, education, food and catering or any other venture. They say the most widely available and produced commodity in a country or region is always the cheapest item there, so Pakistan is producing human beings as a major production making it cheaper and cheaper every year. A citizen, here, is cheaper than a manhole-lid, believe me. Isn’t he?
Recently occurred Chitral tragedy has agonised many hearts, filled many eyes with saline water, and shaken earth under the feet of the bereaved families. I cannot say whether or not it has jolted the chambers of the powers for awakening the inmates to take serious actions against the culprits. Switching onto the details, last week, when I checked my WhatsApp groupof the old class fellows, recently created by me, I was shocked to know that the fifteen family members of our very dear classmate Shabbir Anjum had met a severe calamity in the early span of the morning, during their recreational tour to Chitral from Kasur. Their hotel balcony, on the 4th floor, caved in, all of a sudden, leaving five members died on the spot and others seriously injured. Here, it is desirable to mention that they were staying in one of the best, the most modern, the most expensive and, above all, the newly constructed hotel.
As I tried my best to know the details, I was quite upset because no mainstream news channel was airing any news about the incident.Anyhow, I contacted a local journalist in Chitral who provided me with the details to a reasonable extent. It was just like a doomsday for the family members in Kasur as they were far away from Chitral and Peshawar where their loved ones were scattered wounded and dead and they had to manage their funerals and care. So, I could not muster up courage to call Shabbir who immediately left Kasur and was on the way to Peshawar as per the information I received from other friends.
I appreciate the federal and the provincial governments and the onboard institutions and all officials who managed to airlift the injured persons to Lady Reading Hospital Peshawar. That is one of the exemplary arrangements in the history of the country. It definitely saved many precious lives and sent a great message of love and kindness to the society. But, the need of the hour is to bring all the responsible organisations and persons including hotel owners, building contractors and concerning government engineers to the court of justice and sentence them accordingly for it is not a minor crime but a murder case. The eyewitnesses stated that there was no sign of any steel support, girder or rod to make the concrete sustainable and that is the reason of this dreadful blow.
Such deadly man-made mishaps or the acts of indirect barbarianism in the name of business have been going on unleased in the country for a long time, but nothing concrete has ever happened to control these havocs except raising short-term hue and cry and condemnation. Hundreds of the innocent souls have been lost due to the cases of sudden collapse and fire-bursting in our ill-planned, poorly designed, wickedly allowed and illegally constructed buildings in our country. But, despite all that, the rampage of such buildings, without the use of standard material, proper designing, technical scrutiny and emergency exits, is unleashed and galloping rapidly to touch the other milestones.
Once a great tragedy took place and 16 children died while being transported to school in a Chingchi Rikshaw, a few years back and the whole country sank into a shockwave. But, what happened next? We witnessed more suchinstances and nothing happened except repentance and condolence. These mock or pseudo transport carriages, here, have killed many many school children in different shocking accidents occurred at different times, but nobody was taken to task. The most painful and maddening fact is that still these obnoxious type of a so-called vehicle is being used as a school van in our cities and towns with 12-16 children per Rickshaw. Poorly maintained or technically expired school vans, with highly illegal and unreliable CNG kits and Cylinder installations, have played havoc with many families, but nobody was ever punished.
As our Prime Minister has, recently, reiterated his resolve to promote Pakistan as a tourism-centric country by developing the tourist sites and spots and introducing attractive packages and official reforms, it is pertinent and incumbent on him to probe into this matter and provide justice to the bereaved families, otherwise certain incidents will surely discourage even the local tourists to spend a lot on the recreational trip that leads to the death. Therefore, expecting foreign tourists and the visitors will n nothing more than wild dream.