More of the same

FEBRUARY 2001 - A new report released last week states that the Charing Cross area – God knows what we call it now, is the most polluted area in the city where breathing the very air is akin to taking doses of poison. What the air intake is doing to all those who have to walk through Charing Cross or worse still, live and work there, the report mercifully does not elaborate. The cause is diesel fumes and where they come from, we all know. For some reason, they cannot be prevented either and there you have the sum total of more or less, what is the problem with the country.

Charing Cross may be one small elitist area in the country and can go to the dogs – though there is much good to learn from dogs, but the poisoned air we breathe here and elsewhere and the polluted water we drink, could well be two of the most serious problems on our plate. Added to the long list of others, it makes for cheerful reading and so large have these problems become that solutions seem impossible. Yet we all know that solutions are there and we also know that some solutions are well within our reach. For some blighted reason, we make no effort to reach for them.

Mr. Lashari in Lahore is considered something of a genius and creative planner who is busy launching a hundred schemes to make the city more attractive and beautiful. The Food Street, which draws hundreds of people nightly, is one great success and stories are circulating that another street is on its way. Certainly the people love it – so far, and poor Lakhshami Chowk (what’s the new name?) wears a somewhat deserted look. Clearly, the Food Street, walking distance from here has taken the business. But while watching people having a good time is nice and women can be assured they will not be pinched or ogled, it is rather frightening to think where all the refuse and left over food, plastic, paper, cardboard and tins are going. As far as anyone knows, the good Mr. Lashari may have renovated the street, but couldn’t have laid in heavy-duty sewerage to take care of the hectic business activity and its consequences. Another catastrophe may soon be on our hands. Certainly, there is no sign of organized cleaning and the spaces inches away from the barricaded street are littered with refuse of the usual kind that decorates all spaces in Pakistan. It wouldn’t take much to mount a proper operation to take care of all this. If an entire street can be planned, why can’t this aspect receive the same attention?

The Charing Cross situation is of course the result of the infernal mini wagons, a painful necessity since we can have one man live in an opulent Governor House but can’t even start planning a transit system for the city where over thousands work and commute daily. People need mass transport and there isn’t one in sight, so wagons multiply and since no one is really bothered to mount an effective check-system, the pollution begins and goes on increasing. Agreed that there are many things we cannot do – we don’t have resources, we don’t have the technology and so on, but when a vehicle is rolling along emitting clouds of lethal black smoke, what new world technology or holy communication will move one policeman to pull it over and have the keys removed? Easier said than done because it cannot happen. That complicated, interwoven and insidious system of corruption, sloth and indifference all cast a net over any person or organization half inclined to make a difference. The wagons are police owned, or operated by them or their stooges and so on and so on. The rest is known to all of us, so the wagon goes on polluting the air and we go on breathing it. Somewhere in there, the odd report surfaces that frightens citizens for a few seconds and then it is business as before.

It’s the same sort of thing that blights other areas. A few friends who traveled from London to Lahore by PIA last month, enjoyed the flight and thought they were well looked after, but were baffled that on an international flight and that too from London, not Chad, there was no reading material on board. The audio system was shut down and the video system was not functioning. Seats were either stuck in the upright position or would not move from a reclining position. The seat belts were temperamental and the long flight became something of an ordeal. Anyone can understand that PIA has old planes and no one is asking any more that they be replaced with modern hi tech aircraft that other airlines use, but what new age technology do we need to fix seats and what beam of light from the USS Enterprise will fix a dodgy seat belt? The long flight thus became something of an ordeal and all the good work done by the crew – the food was reasonably good and a few of the air hostesses were actually seen to be smiling in the Economy Section and the flight was punctual, only two hours late, went to waste. All this made worse when reportedly, there are 7,000 Pakistanis who make up the Engineering Department in PIA, the largest department incidentally. Why they can’t make sure a seat belt is not dodgy is beyond most of us. Probe further and you will run into the usual reasons why things don’t work here. Unions, Urdu speaking vs. the rest and so on. Pretty soon, most will give up trying to fix the belt and other considerations will take over. At least the planes fly and so on.

The Lahore Airport – for that is what they insist on calling it, is an Adda where people push, shove and fight their way to get on to the bus or get off it. Sometimes it is an Airbus and sometimes it is a bus that flies in the air while its counterparts do very well as they fly over the roads. The entry to the airport manned by six goons is the first part of the ordeal. What they seek to find – and do find, is a mystery but they hold up traffic and the long lines stretch back to the main gates and the vehicles exiting cannot exit – the mess happens. There are three lanes that lead to the main terminal. Two seem to be designed for cycles and are used by all the vehicles that come to drop passengers. It takes a few seconds for an unmanageable situation as lines stretch and traffic is blocked. Meanwhile, the third lane is actually a wide, sweeping highway where you will find a Pajero with black windows if the PPP or PML are in power, or cars and jeeps with arrows going up and long numbers when the forces are in power. While one or two occupy in regal splendour the wide concourse, the revenue paying people battle it out in lanes meant for bicycles. When will it all end? Your guess is as good as mine.