The tragedies in the two industrial units in Lahore and Karachi defy any explanation. What they manifest are the consequences of the slide of the bureaucracy (including in banks) into a seemingly bottomless pit of irresponsibility, neglect of their duties, and corruption, and the total lack of accountability skills, (partly due to their political affiliations) in Pakistan's lawmakers.
Let us wait and see what the judicial inquiry probes and establishes based thereon, and how well it succeeds in punishing those responsible for these tragedies. But for the dependants of the hundreds killed in these two disasters, the immediate issue is getting used to missing their loved ones and, somehow, surviving without the incomes their dead family members used to provide.
In a TV talk show on September 12, a (supposedly) top-ranking anchor demanded that the survivors of the diseased be given Rs 1 million and not Rs 0.5 million, as in the past. Surely, the survivors don't want to become millionaires upon the death of their loved ones; what they want is a sustained source of livelihood. Giving them one million or half a million rupees isn't the solution.
The more sensible course would be to invest these sums in long-term securities that can provide the families a monthly income that is close to what their deceased family members were earning. If given hard cash, the families of the deceased are more likely to waste it, or be robbed of this money in a variety of ways by their deceptive 'well-wishers'. Once the orphaned children of the deceased come of age and acquire some professional skills, they could use those funds to set up economic activities of their choice.
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