Reports of 22 people, including 10 children, freezing to death enroute to Murree make for a monumental tragedy for which more than people’s negligence the incompetence of the provincial government and bureaucratic machinery must be held responsible. The hill station, just like dozens around it, faces a heavy rush of tourists every year, and runs into innumerable problems, yet the administration has never though it necessary to pull its socks up and prepare in advance for the wave of tourists that is sure to come. The only difference is that this year it snowed more and for longer than usual, which caused tens of thousands of cars to get caught on the highway and, with snow blocking the exhaust pipes of most vehicles, innocent people who went to sleep from the exhaustion were poisoned by carbon monoxide fumes and never woke up. The straight-forward question that presents itself, and one which the government hasn’t yet answered, is that since heavy snowfall was expected between January six and nine, which meant that more than usual people would definitely want to flock to the tourist resort, then why weren’t contingency plans made in advance? Also, why are civilian disaster management authorities always found lacking in competence whenever they are urgently needed? Whether it is annual floods or seasonal snow blocking routes, why does the civilian setup become paralysed while the army has very few problems sorting out the mess when it has to be called in? What are the big budgets for when the bureaucracy cannot prepare for the one or two disaster that always come? For the CM and PM to simply say that all this was caused because a higher-than-expected number of cars suddenly appeared on heavily snow-covered roads will not wash. The time has come to take serious action and it is an utter pity that so many innocent lives, including those of little children, had to be wasted for the government to realise that it hasn’t been doing its core job properly. Heads must roll. Nothing less will do. *