The Chief Minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, deserves special credit for cleaning up the city of Lahore and other cities in the province. The Lahore roads have been widened, and the staff in uniforms are always found on the roads doing their cleaning job. What is terribly missing is orderly traffic. Huge chaos and commotion exist on the roads even in the presence of traffic police, who are invariably busy using their cell phones. The government will do well to remember that one of the prominent ways to judge a nation’s discipline is by its road traffic.
We observe unruly traffic and chaos on roads as part of normal life. Most surprising is the excessive use of cell phones while driving. There’s no discrimination between a car driver and a motorcyclist. Both categories remain glued to their instruments as if they had to conduct business worth millions and were short of time. A car driver, driving leisurely in the fast lane and using his cell phone, is most annoying. One has to overtake him from the left side against traffic rules. But an accomplished prankster is the one who rides a motorbike with two small kids sitting in front of him on the gas tank, one between him and his healthy wife, while he is busy talking on his cell phone by holding it between his ear and twisted neck.
Since the CM of Punjab is genuinely interested in introducing positive changes to the administrative setup of the province, she is advised to include improving traffic conditions as an urgent requirement for disciplined drivers.
Since the CM Punjab is genuinely interested in introducing positive changes in the administrative set-up of the province, she is suggested to include the improvement of traffic conditions as an urgent requirement for disciplined drivers. She recently paid a surprise visit to G.T. Road to observe cleanliness and the state of the anti-encroachment drive that she initiated with great fervour. She showed keen interest in Gujranwala, which is known as the City of Wrestlers. The city produces special dishes to suit the taste of wrestlers. Once, I tasted the wrestler’s favourite dish but couldn’t appreciate it much since I wasn’t a wrestler.
Road turns in some locations offer a test case for drivers. One such turn is located at the main gate of the Lalazar Colony near Niazbeg Thokar. The wide road just before the gate has a row of cat-eyes on three-quarters of its length, while a quarter of it in front of the colony’s gate is plain. The motorists, motorcyclists, and rickshaws coming from the main city at high speed swerve sharply to pass through the flat surface instead of slowing down to negotiate the row with cat-eyes. Those waiting to drive out of the residential area to take a right turn are completely dumbfounded about how to negotiate the traffic chaos. Accidents often take place at this spot, with broken windshield pieces found scattered on the road. How kind and considerate it would be if the Chief Minister decided to direct her personal assistant to visit this spot. She would know how she is making all-out efforts to improve the road conditions by repairing even small patches and how a chaotic spot exists at the main road gate of Lalazar Colony. Ideally, it needs a properly designed and constructed speed breaker, keeping in view the intensity of the traffic.
Besides the traffic congestion on the roads, huge multi-storey office buildings constructed in the public sector consume large spaces and require colossal amounts to complete them. Why go far? The Punjab Food, Agriculture & Drug Authority office adjoining the NAB office near Niazbeg Thokar on Multan Road can be quoted as an example of wastage of public money. The six-storey office building with a basement, which has been under construction for the last many years, is sprawled over sixty-four kanals of land. Each kanal in this area would not cost less than Rs20 million. How this building would benefit ordinary people is only known to the planners in the government. Needless to say, this amount could have been used to develop dispensaries in rural areas, provide free medicines to the needy, or open schools for the twenty-six million children who have yet to see a classroom. But then, it’s a matter of priorities – how the rich in the government plan to use the borrowed billions from the lending authorities. Do they want to erect multi-storey buildings on expensive land or help the poor to alleviate their miseries?
The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and can be reached at [email protected]