We read in Physics that every object has a limit to bear stress and if this limit (the ‘elastic limit’) is crossed then its shape starts to deform until breaking point is reached and the object breaks. Such seems to be the case with the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) puppeteered by apparently apathetic custodians of the City of Lights.
Sir Abdullah Haroon, lieutenant of the Father of Pakistani nation, draftsman of the 1940 Pakistan Resolution, whom Gandhi could ‘trust with a blank cheque’, has an entire 0.34-kilometer road named after him. However, sadly though, this very road where once carriage of the then 34-year-old Queen Elizabeth rode past, is also left at the mercy of the coterie of the complacent lot that have been dismally running the show in Sindh for the past whole decade now. The incidence of grave potholes stretches all the way to the 3.71-kilometer Khayaban-e-Iqbal road reinforcing the age-old saying that a cat cannot be left to guard the milk [the trustees of the limited budget allocated to Karachi].
Time and again, veterans like the late prodigal journalist, Ardeshir Cowasjee, have tried to drum sense into the local authorities through relentless journalism of how important it is to ensure that all developmental projects are carved out of public-spiritedness. However, to choose the grand Chess Corner on Abdullah Haroon Road, a big neon-lit ‘Karachi The City of Lights’ signed off with a CK [by obvious epigones of Calvin Klien], and the latest renovation works inside the KPT Underpass over the deprived state of the roads is nothing short of contempt.
The perfect score by the KMC on the constant miss-outs and half-baked patching on these visible road-related problems that have plagued the passing thousands of beleaguered motorists, begs to be beaten. Could anybody have ever imagined a nation brimming with talented civil engineers would have roads [in the largest tax-paying city] be riddled with unattended potholes?
2-wheelers, often carrying families and children, are routinely seen helplessly dodging and crashing into these surprise potholes and non-uniform patches but the powerful elites continue to wear blindfolds in all ashamedness.
Patching work has to be long-term (or permanent) and not superfluous. Period.
Abdullah Ali Khan (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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