TRADITIONALLY, the Eid festival brings with it a lot of joy, energy and excitement in Pakistan. Geographical distances become irrelevant as families gather from all corners of the world to celebrate the religious festival together. Yet, the sentiment of Eid was rather muted in Karachi this time.
While rest of the country celebrated Eid, families of about two dozen people mourned their drowning in the sea waters of Karachi.The news headline was not unfamiliar to the citizens of Karachi as every year such unfortunate incidents take place in the rough seas of its coast.
Like every year, the government had imposed a ban on sea swimming at the start of monsoon season in June. However, thousands of people continued to flaunt the official ban and flock the city’s beaches to enjoy their Eid holidays.
In the absence of other affordable entertainment avenues in the city, these picnickers chose to ignore the warnings and also reportedly became violent when police tried to implement the ban. In the aftermath of this national tragedy, the government was all set to impose Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, making violation of sea swimming ban a chargeable offense. But does the responsibility of civil administrators end by promulgating such restrictions?
The open defiance of a ban imposed by government exposes its ineffectiveness and lack of control over civil administration matters. Precious human lives could have been saved if the local government had made adequate arrangements to ensure effective implementation of its orders. Public officials expressed their helplessness in enforcing the ban and were reluctant to take stricter measures to keep citizens away from the sea. The government has also come under fire for not deploying sufficient emergency response services at the site, which caused a delay in the relief efforts. Nonetheless, the rather untrained and ill-equipped emergency response teams, with the help of navy divers, did a commendable job of recovering most of the dead bodies.
Given Pakistan’s precarious law and order situation, special attention needs to be given to the state of emergency response services in the country. These services have suffered from years of neglect by policymakers, and low investment in equipment and training. Although poorly compensated for their life-saving heroics, the response teams are largely driven by their passion to serve their countrymen and continue to put themselves at the forefront of most hazardous situations.
They have shown their will to overcome all challenges and come to the rescue of ordinary citizens affected by terrorist acts and other natural calamities. It is imperative that the government allocates the needful resources for quality and timely delivery of emergency response services. There is also a dire need to make their working conditions safer and give more recognition to their public service efforts.
The onus for preventing such tragedies does not only lie with the government. Citizens need to display greater civic sense and be prepared to respect such official curbs that are for their own good. While most are aware of the dangers posed by a rough sea, the local administration and other agencies can perhaps develop more intensive communication campaigns to ward off people from such risky zones.
