Information flows from north to south internationally, emboldening the line between haves and have-nots. Nature also seems to toe to this emboldened line. Don’t believe! Try travelling from Islamabad to anywhere in the south of Punjab, spend a few days there in summer and you will stand disillusioned. The mighty of the north and the centre have taken over functions of the Almighty in the south.
The south has almost lost relevance in Punjab other than a few sardar and syed families that leave their serine pre-partition have lies to find solace in their relatively recently built trendy villas on The Mall and around the canal in Lahore.
The lack of relevance of the south is explicit by the fact that if you travel on the GT Road you cannot tell where you have left Islamabad and when have you entered Lahore given the unending lines of business ventures, hotels and housing societies that flank the road. It is all north, notwithstanding the toll plazas that pop up every now and then indicating the start of a new district.
On the other hand, when you hit the Mianwali-Muzaffargarh (MM) Road, you need to travel hours to find a toll plaza or even a fuel station. Overloaded trucks and trailers have cut the road into rough rugs and wind blows the sands of Thal in your face if you open window to breathe fresh air.
To boot, you cannot find one single traditional southern city like Rajanpur, Kot Addu, Layyah on MM Road. Why? The successive governments have distributed Thal desert into Punjabi farmers aka “settlers” ignoring the sons of the soil and then built this road running through their “settlements” painstakingly making sure that it does not come close to any traditional southern city until it hits Muzaffargarh.
Come Muzaffargarh, and you find Chenab River. Go deeper in the south towards Karachi, and you come across Panjnad Headworks, where all the five rivers of Punjab converge. The area houses mega power generation units and is exposed to massive floods almost on annual basis.
A fair conclusion on the basis of the area’s geography and its electricity generation potential is that it will have non-stop power supply in addition to feeding central and northern Punjab regions. Given the extremities of weather, it is also imperative. But the reality is in contrast. Decade upon decade, the area has been facing 12-16 hours’ power outage on daily basis.
In rising temperature, people simply die, and the bereaved families are given to believe that their loved ones had a heart attack when it is actually the heat stroke and suffocation. Because of long power outages, whatever few instruments are installed in hospitals go out of work and patients die. Doctors in small towns are in habit of referring them to main centres like Multan and Bahawalpur knowing full well that their colleagues in big hospitals will never admit them citing shortage of space.
The patients die on the way from a small hospital to a big one or in the waiting queues there. The bereaved families mourn the will of the Almighty. Few know that it is not the work of Almighty, but the mighty.