THE loud-thinking that Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmad had on Monday on critical issues facing Karachi and apathy of the officials concerned reflected the overall sentiments of the people over the prevailing messy situation. Hearing petitions against encroachment on public parks, amenity lands, revival of Karachi Circular Railways and unauthorized multi-storeyed buildings in Karachi, the SC’s three-member Bench, headed by CJP, took an exception over lack of administration and poor governance in Karachi and observed that the government’s writ does not seem to exist in Karachi. The CJP observed that mafias were financing the governments as they knew no action will be taken against them due to monetary benefits they gave to the governments.
Recent developments including havoc played by rains, electrocution of citizens, continued power shut down and choking of the entire sewage system with unimaginable impact on health and environment strengthened the impression that the city of the Quaid has become ungovernable and both the provincial and local governments have miserably failed to address woes of Karachiites. It was because of inability of the authorities concerned to deliver that Army/National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had to be assigned the task of assisting the civil administration in managing urban flooding situation in the metropolis. As for remarks of the Chief Justice about mafias, he was necessarily speaking in the context of Karachi but these are also true of the whole country as we have witnessed recently in the case of sugar and wheat crises. The Government launched inquiries, responsibility was fixed but nothing has transpired as far as remedial measures are concerned. Not to speak of reduction in the prices of both the commodities, which were jacked up by the mafia without any justification, their prices have further gone up and the upward trend is still continuing. Helpless of the Government can be judged by the fact that it is now totally banking upon import of sugar and wheat, a process that would take some time to materialize and there are still questions whether this would lead to any worthwhile reduction in their prices in the domestic market. All this shows mafias are really stronger than governments but the question arises who will ring the cat and ensure writ of the state as has been emphasized by the Chief Justice of Pakistan. If the Government is unable to act against mafias, it is also responsibility of the judiciary to come forward to safeguard interests of the people. It is satisfying that the apex court issued a number of directives in relation to improvement of the situation in Karachi but developments elsewhere in the country also merit urgent intervention to break the nexus between mafias and their beneficiaries who protect them in different ways.
