Tragedy in Karachi

The death of at least 40 people, including 20 children, in the fire that swept through a shanty settlement in Karachi is not just an accident of fate or an act of God. The havoc created by the fire that broke out Thursday night exposes the vulnerability of life for the poorest people in our society. It seems obvious that the poor quality of housing was a factor that contributed to the devastating loss of life, as the tiny huts, most of them made of loose timber and sticks, burnt to the ground within hours. Accounts from devastated people, many of whom lost children or other family members in the blaze that added to the misery of lives for people who already face multiple hardships, say the flames engulfed entire homes within minutes, making it impossible to rescue those caught inside. At least 14 shelters were completely destroyed. Some parents were killed or badly injured in desperate, sometimes heroic, attempts to save offspring. Fire-fighting teams who reached the spot were able to do little to control the flames. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

The funerals of those who died in the tragedy are now taking place. One by one those killed in the awful disaster will be consigned to the ground. Nothing, of course, can ever bring back the dead and only time will somewhat ease the sorrow of those who have been burying family members. But somewhere in what happened are important lessons to be learned by the state and indeed, by all of us who speak up too rarely for the rights of those made virtually voiceless because of the disempowerment they have suffered. It is a matter of shame that even six decades after the creation of our country, so many of its citizens should live in such abject misery. According to official data, there is a desperate shortage of housing units – particularly in larger urban centres. A backlog of 6.19 million units exists at the present time and continues to grow each year. Most people live in sub-standard housing, made of unbaked brick, mud or timber and straw. Most houses are badly over-crowded. Successive reports state a failure to direct priority in terms of official policy to housing needs over the past many decades is a factor in this situation. As a consequence, the situation has continued to worsen from year to year. The dramatic rise in homelessness we see in all our cities is a reflection of this.

There are also other lessons. As in previous incidents, the response from the fire brigade and other services seems to have been inadequate, even though the speed at which the blaze took grip made their task difficult. It is also a political party, rather than the government, that has moved to offer affected people alternative shelter. There has been conjecture that a candle or lantern lit to combat the darkness cast by a lack of power may have triggered the fire. Also the possibility of a deliberate attempt to set the settlement on fire cannot be ruled out as one senior Edhi official said on Friday that perhaps the land on which the squatters lived was valuable and might have been under the eyes of the city's powerful mafia. All these point to flaws within the system that add to the sufferings of tens of thousands of people and, from time to time, result in terrible tragedies such as the one seen in Karachi.


There is, quite evidently, a sense of gloating in India after the fiasco that led to the dismissal of the prime minister's national security adviser. The Indian media has been pointing out that Pakistan, initially, attempted to hide the truth. It has been insinuated that Mr Gilani's angry response to Maj-Gen (r) Mehmud Durrani's admission of Ajmal Kasab's nationality belies a desire to cover up the truth. All this does little good to Pakistan. Its credibility, which is already not high, has been damaged further. In the days ahead, New Delhi can be expected to try and capitalise on this as far as possible. Its tactics of keeping up the pressure will no doubt continue. Pakistan has, through a lack of communication or mismanagement or possibly both, managed to work itself into an even tighter spot than before. Perhaps, from all that has happened, it will realise that the truth is often a wiser strategy than lies. This is particularly true when Ajmal Kasab's links to Pakistan had already been exposed in a series of media revelations. Islamabad needs to work out how best to compensate for the damage that has already been done. Its relations with India now become a little more complicated.

It will be easier than before for Indian officials to claim Islamabad's assertions are not necessarily accurate or that it is not willing to come clean regarding involvement in Mumbai. So far there has been a lack of any great display of acumen by the Islamabad leadership. Kasab's identification as a Pakistani national makes it all the more imperative that it proceed with good sense, make no attempt to hide facts that are bound to surface anyway and do what is possible to restore its standing as a responsible nation ready and willing to fight the scourge of terrorism.


In terms of its efforts to eradicate polio and clamber off the list of the four countries in the world where polio remains endemic, the year 2009 has begun badly for Pakistan. The first case of the year has been confirmed in Punjab's Sahiwal district, which had been declared 'polio-free'. This discovery, with a five-year-old girl found infected, comes after the reporting of 118 cases of polio across the country in 2008. The figure is startling when compared with rates for previous years. In 2007, 32 cases were confirmed. For 2006 this number stood at 39 and for the year before that 28.

Clearly, something is not right. It is pointless to blame the resurgence of the sickness only on refusals by parents to have their children vaccinated. While this has been an issue in parts of NWFP, with some 30 cases uncovered in the province through 2008, it cannot explain the presence of cases in other provinces. Refusal is not, after all, an issue in Punjab or Sindh. It is important that problems pointed to over the past year be properly investigated. Apart from many loopholes in the coverage of children and administrative flaws in the anti-polio campaign, there have been more serious allegations. These include charges of corruption, embezzlement of funds intended for the drive against the disease and failure to maintain the cold chain necessary to keep the oral vaccine effective. There have also been stories about the use of substandard vaccinations. While officials have fervently denied this, and have blamed the number of cases on persons who bring in the virus from neighbouring Afghanistan or on its administration to children suffering diarrhoea, this explanation on its own is inadequate. Pakistan had hoped to be declared a polio-free nation by 2010. This goal now seems unlikely to be met. The challenge for Pakistan's health officials and for the new federal health minister is to uncover what is going wrong, so that we can move closer to a situation where no child is afflicted by a disease that has over the last decades left hundreds disabled.

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Regards,
P.R.