In your opinion, who is the responsible of traffic jams in Karachi?

• Public: because people don’t care about rules and still want to use incorrect paths regardless the impact?
• City Government: because they didn’t plan properly and creating problems for public?
• Traffic Police: because they are failed to control traffic properly?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Found this on Youtube below is the description about video.

“6 No. point kharab honay ki waja say 6 no. point walon ko 12 no. point ka rukh karna parha jis say rush main izafa howa aur ya dilchasp sorat e hal samnay aii

Video By MUHAMMAD WAQAS FE – ME – 034 Sec -A NEDUET karachi”

A student, a child, an old man, of a father, mother sister, wife, daughter, who once back in the timeline who too were lying lifeless just like this cat, on a Similar road, and like the cats tail their gaze pointing towards to city asking only one question. “Was the rush really worth taking away a life ?” The city is silent, maybe of guilt or too insensitive to understand the question.

Karachi is the trade hub of the country, and as any economist will tell you, when an urban centre is developed without enough attention to rural or even semi urban areas, rural-urban migration is only natural. Karachi thus attracts a number of migrants from not only the N.W.F.P, but all over the country. This migrant population then assimilates into the workforce and over the years has become an integral economic force in the city.

The Pakhtuns too have become an indispensable part of Karachi. Not only do they control most of the public transportation system, but a majority of cobblers, tea hotel owners, construction labourers happen to be Pakhtuns.

No matter what political reasons are given for any conflict, the underlying reason is always economic. Talibanisation, thus, is only an excuse. The faultline for the current conflict are all Pakhtun majority areas specially the adjoining areas to the Pahar Ganj. The land has appreciated in value, but remains the stronghold of Pakhtuns, a thorn in the side of the land mafia that controls the rest of the city- or that is what the unbiased residents of North Nazimabad, Block A, C and Q claim who find themselves in the middle of the bloodshed. They claim that violence erupted in the area last night when the Pakhtun flag on the hill was replaced by a ‘Muhajir’ flag.

The residents of the area fear that over the next few days, the violence will escalate, unless the power struggle between the two ethnic parties is resolved.

Day two, 1:30 PM, on the flyover which goes from sahrah-e-faisal to Allah Wala chorungi, A motorcycle on the curve stationed perpendicular to the road, as I approach 40km/h in high speed lane, The motorcycle swiftly moves and slams on the tight median and comes to an abrupt halt right in front of me. I barely missed hitting him by swirling to my left. I am still unable to understand if it was some stunt or a suicide attempt by the stupid bikers.

Day three, I let a motorcyclist pass through in peace on an intersection and in return he halts his bike right in front of my car and curses me for God knows what throwing his hands in a gesture which suggests he want me to run him over, but I refuse to budge and continue to stare him in disbelieve. He soon gives up and disappears.

Day four, 5:00 Pm, by the ground opposite Baitul Mukaram, Hassan square. A new civic, parked in the middle of the road, by the side of a row of the push cart venders selling fruits, the owner apparently nowhere nearby his car, bikes passing from between the parked car and the row of pushcarts, while cars are jammed in a gridlock. 

Day Five, 5:30 Pm, On the road from Mukah Chouk, headding towards Gulshan -e-Iqbal passing through Aziz-abad. 3 Kids on a bike ridden by a 12 year old, going recklessly on the road, barely maintaining it’s balance. The same day, on the same road a speeding car coming to an abrupt halt, in the right most fast, lane barely having a narrow escape from being hit by a truck which was following it and then suddenly making a left turn almost hitting barely missing a motorcyclist, only to stop at a samosay wala’s stall. 

Now please remember in the month of Ramadan if your don’t reach home for the Aftaar believe me you wont die and if fasting is getting to your nerves and you want to curse and abuse people who are being nice to you, or if you are so hungry and impatient that you want to reach home and get everything done in the blink of an eye just because you can take only so much, I have a little suggesting for you. And please take it seriously because I mean it. Fasting is all about self control and if you cant have that self control on your nerves, your temper and patience please don’t fool your self by starving all day and ending up by the dusk with a bag full of sin.

Tyre killers

These tyre killers will puncture the tyres of cars that come from the wrong direction, while allowing the correct drivers to pass through.

I spoke with an engineer there, who told me that during the past week, DHA had received 4 complaints from angry drivers who lost their tyres to this device. Its interesting how people can call up and complain about something thats a consequence of violating the law!

Here are some pictures and a video… (a friend happened be in office (on Shahra-e-faisal) when he capture this on his cell phone, so the credits for the pictures and the video goes to Danish)

Here’s why:

The traffic at a round about or a non functioning signal is blocked and there isn’t a traffic policeman in sight. The four way bottleneck has resulted in chaos and every car is just trying to push through to make its own way out. While a few lucky vehicles are successful in zigzagging their way out of the mess, the traffic keeps building at the rear so that what probably started as one man’s impatience has snowballed into a major problem for a few hundred (and that is not an exaggeration).

That’s one way of going about of it but lots of Karachi drivers consider it the only way.

A more courteous alternative for the drivers would be to wait at an intersection and let the stream of traffic coming from one direction to exhaust (which it eventually will in a few minutes) before he/she goes ahead.

Sadly, what that requires is a collective change in attitudes which can only come about if Driver Education Drives are launched at a larger scale. Till the authorities that be realize that, we can only hope that individuals upholding some basic values set an example for others around them. Also, all new drivers who complain about others not following traffic rules can help by not joining the bandwagon but sticking to rules such as lane discipline, signaling etc so that the new generation of drivers can instill some sense of discipline among the experienced ones.

Till then, give way. It will only result in a clearer way for you and those behind you.