Given the manner in which the coalition government is functioning (?) at the centre, and the doubts there have been lingering about the first 100 days of the new government, and a ministerial rhetoric punctuated by half-hearted hollow claims, and the suicide bomber's attack in Islamabad outside the Lal Masjid, on Sunday, Monday evening was a deepening of the sense of disappointment.
Or shall we call it by another name? What did that series of blasts mean? Whom were they intended for? Is that a warning? What lies ahead? Many such questions now. But as they happened a feeling of fear spread all over Karachi.
And now, as against the days when there was that muffle state-managed and owned PTV, the TV channels, reported and gave details of how the blasts took place. And of course where they took place.
Of course the terrifying (even numbing the mind with fear) blasts brought the worst case scenarios to the minds of Karachiites, and those familiar with the places where the six or seven explosions took place as they imagined what must be happening in those localities. Will the entire city be engulfed in violence and bloodshed, all over again? Will there be confrontation? Only frightening questions. Only time would provide answers.
The blasts not only terrified the Sindh capital but also mystified it, says the lead story in Dawn yesterday. Observers and analysts have been quoted as saying that most of the bombs used in Karachi were of a low intensity and designed more to spread panic than to cause large scale human casualties.
As I sat at home, watching television news report the details, and some images as well, many previous instances when Karachi was made to bleed came to mind. But then why Karachi alone? Pakistan is bleeding, and it has been like this for a long time.
I took a young man's advice and stayed at home that evening.
One of the numerous questions that bother some of us at least, is whether we are truly a society that does appreciate that there is a need to conserve electricity, conserve fuel, avoid wastage of food, and to lead simpler lives - the list is long. The need to do act on these norms is urgent, if not desperate. This society does not appear to realise, compelling one to wonder when exactly it will And will it for that matter? It is interesting to see what has happened in South Korea as a part of its emergency plan aimed at saving energy amid soaring oil prices.
It announced on 6th July that it would "drastically reduce the use of government vehicles from next week, and that as a consequence more than 15000 vehicles at 819 government offices or state run bodies would be forced to remain idle every other day from 15th July" (I think the precision with which the announcement has been made is significant. No ambiguities and generalities to which we are accustomed.
The South Korean Prime Minister has disclosed that all vehicles with even numbered licence plates would be banned from running on even- numbered days and those with odd numbered plates restricted from operating on odd-numbered days. He addressed a press conference, reports AFP from Seoul, and underlined that "even oil producing countries are tightening their belts to save energy in the era of ultra high oil prices."
The South Korean package of emergency measures aimed at saving energy stipulates that the government would replace half of its vehicles with energy-efficient compact or hybrid cars by 2012.
Of course I am wondering not only at the public attitude towards the energy conservation responses that we have seen in the recent weeks (a new government is in place, we should bear in mind) but also contemplating the wider picture.
The people, and the traders and the consumers all have rejected the early closing hours of markets and shopping centres; even in the homes and offices there is barely, if at all, any change in the attitude towards switching off lights, despite a realisation that electricity tariffs have risen, and are going to rise further, as the government subsidies are steadily withdrawn, and producing and generating costs continue to rise.
The Daylight Saving Times introduced on 1st June has not produced the desired results, neither awareness. No communication strategies for the public have been made known. It is in the implementation of plans and strategies that we fail and demonstrate our lapses.
For whatever it means, to the common man, there should be some signals coming about the way in which the Pakistani rupee is losing value. That the State Bank Governor has been publicising the new currency notes (Rs 5 and Rs 50) is amusing, and a passing thought on this theme is that of the more atrocious and disgraceful quality of the new currency notes that we have seen in the last couple of years.
No one talks of it, and that is worse. It is almost of symbolic value that the Pakistani currency notes of recent years are poor, mirroring not just the poor worth of the rupee itself, but also the diminishing role of ethical and artistic standards in this Islamic society.
I did not intend to focus so much on the old or the new currency notes. But what can I do when in addition to the real value, I also perceive a symbolic value of the purchasing power of the rupee.
And it is not just nostalgia that is working in the subconscious. It is the poor quality and lowered levels of efficiency that bothers me. It affects all of us, but strangely efficiency and quality do not get the priority and urgency they need to. I suppose in a society challenged by terrorism and issues that target sovereignty, goals like ensuring quality are elusive, if not somewhat irrelevant?
The Defence and Commerce Minister, Ahmed Mukhtar said in Lahore last week, (28th June and reported only in this newspaper) that the government may resort to alternate day petrol supply "if petrol consumption continues unabated".
He said that the number of vehicles plying on the roads in other countries had declined because of rising petroleum prices whereas the situation in Pakistan is totally different. I wonder whether he has kept in mind the fact that other countries, presumably developed ones, have decent, and dependable, and adequate public transport systems which people can fall back on. Not so here.
Admittedly the energy conservation situation in Pakistan is complicated and it defies my imagination as to how severe does the energy crisis has to turn into before there is a realisation and action that are required to meet it. If only we had successfully travelled on the road to making our marriages and their menus in particular simpler, less expensive. Alas, we have reached no where. Only a dead-end ---, if anywhere. ([email protected])
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