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BEAMING his cavernous fret over the swelling road disasters in Pakistan — which by n’ large have become a daily practice — President General Pervez Musharraf has issued a directive to germane authorities to carry out a meticulous survey of the ill-fated episodes so as to bring such an awful scenario to an eternal end.

Taking an instant cognizance vis-à-vis the recurrent magnitude of the accidents, he has — explicitly — listed the cataclysmic mishap near Bhakkar at the week-end, which claimed almost 62 precious lives, the majority of whom was the youth. Towards this, the President has asked the officials to determine the exact cause of the accident and take wide-ranging measures for prevention of such calamities in all times ahead. He specifically took note of the news that the accident took place due to overloading and has directed authorities to ensure a strict enforcement of traffic rules on each n’ every highway and road to fade away all probabilities of such hapless occurrences.

This order by the President on a subject which relates to every living soul — irrespective of one’s faith, propensity, gender, cast, colour, creed or credo — is by all pragmatic perceptions reassuring and overtly manifests the reality that the country’s head of state is as worried n’ vexed as any-one else, most exclusively the affected families. An infinitesimal analysis of the luckless incidents would divulge the factual raison d'être of such tragedies, which can be barricaded if at all this topic, which opens a ‘Pandora’s Box’ mostly for the poor is injected into the mind by the personals, responsible to cage such a course, paradoxically inflating with the advent of every dawn.

As a matter of fact, reckless driving, jam-packed vehicles, ill-trained influential drivers, lust for a few coins to clutch travellers, out-lived vehicles [mostly owned by sets of 'elite class'], flabbiness by those responsible to check the plying buses, coasters, vans, wagons and even cars, non-implementation of traffic rules by commuters with multiple identical critical aspects like rampant corruption, backed by the vile of pecuniary frustration are deemed to be the root-cause of almost all the road accidents, which have, in a way, become a routine. Though with such a state of affairs, a lot of people are spinning into the category of widows, orphans, and even the end of a source of succor to countless ancestors, no solid or strict measure by the system seems visible which depicts their callous outlook.

Gazing at the ironic index of such escalating neurotic occurrences of day in, day out, road accidents in Pakistan have — by n’ large — turned into a ritual of tedious nature. A bona fide n’ fortified study of this death-defying course exhaustively portrays that the scale of the chronicled catastrophic accidents — like the one on Thursday, which took over 62 loved lives in a jiffy — along with numerous others in multiple vicinities just in a single day — is far fewer than the those which in fact take place in assorted locales — specifically — in the rural terrain, detached from the enticing n’ mesmerizing life-size cities and do not come into notice, as such happenings remain unreported by the media prima facie due to aloofness or lack of communication links.

Global set-ups can — conveniently — evaluate the mortality-rate any where in the world via their set parameters, yet sardonically nothing is in existence to gauge the enormity of carnage on the roads nor does any dominant shot, has been set off to cease the day-to-day mayhem to an eternal end. No one knows as to how many guiltless lives vanish in a spur of moment at the hands of a few wicked n’ wild vested interests — composed of a cluster of illicit species — for the sake of a few elfin coins.

At the same time, no one is — unfortunately — upset n’ uptight vis-à-vis the reality that the unvarying lust-for-money [by a crazy class of egocentrics] is inserting the jovial adolescents into the catalogue of orphans n’ juvenile brides as widows plus innocent parents into a state of a undeviating anguish — with the frequent lifting of copious funerals just in one go. And even then, no one has a compassion on such a dilemma, exploding with the advent of almost every sunup. It’s plainly a merciless pose.

Who is to be held liable? It’s not complex to weigh up as the heartless sky-rocketing raw n’ reckless drivers, the title-holders of the flabby vehicles, the mechanical surveyors n’ examiners, the driving license issuing authorities, the traffic monitors n’ above all every-one else, related to the business, from top to bottom — stands accountable for all such ill-fated episodes.

Even with scant funds, a heavier yoke — is being placed on the national coffers — just to match the ‘pulsating traffic detectives’ to match their needs in conformity with the 21st century epoch. Such groups are even being equipped with dexterous gadgets like cozy, tepid n’ comfy cabs n’ wireless radars — obviously not as opulence, but to shield the humankind — which is being impeached via rising road mishaps — just for indispensable cruise from one place to another to survive.

Obviously such a risky scenario can not be allowed to persist unabated. An instant cognizance of this corrupt practice — at all levels — needs to be addressed as a top priority through combined n’ all-inclusive ways n’ means. It is thus imperative that as an outset measure the real ownership of all the vehicles — plying cold-bloodedly on all routes across the country be fixed to expose the ‘full-throttled n’ powerful’ scruffy n’ shady faces — to take them to task as they are deemed as the perceptible cause of the frequent accidents — both as the merchants, operators plus overseers.

Without the evaporation of such a setting how come a poor cop can cage a repulsive violator of the traffic rules, the driver, who perpetually has a back-up of ‘heavy-weights.’ The motor vehicle law should — simultaneously — be put into effect in a tangible way. All licenses — issued by now — are required to be scrutinized n’ even seized, specifically when a pricey issuance of computerized driving licenses has been kicked off with a fantastic zest.

A meticulous re-check of all the vehicles — irrespective of ones’ sway is equally vital to put the outlived-ones into a ditch or den — of course without any commuter. Initiation of a strict driving test, requisite course with written test n’ examination, for all the pliers, irrespective of one’s status and gender, strong-worded instructions to traffic constables and on-time maintenance of signals is all the more necessary along with proper maintenance of roads and highways, from hefty levies, being accumulated at manifold steps on-route to destinations — as is done in any civilized realm on the orb — to avert the loss of sweetheart, dearest n’ magnificent cherished lives with no fault on their part at all.

The underprivileged — who are for all time the victims — expect with a ray of hope that their elected-representatives — the Legislators — shall take-up the plight of their electorates by getting the genocide on pathways, highways, streets n’ even on boulevard — with expanding travel accidents — stopped at-once, side-by-side clutching their peculiar political aspires — in whatever fashion they wish — lest the killings on roads blow up as a volcanic emission for any-one. Egalitarians — embracing seats on either side in the venerated Houses of Parliament in splendid positions — are ought to take a serious n’ solemn notice of this perilous situation.

Whereas the cabinets on federal and provincial levels can issue spontaneous instructions to the flotilla of traffic staff, airing to it, severe action in case of any laxity, the lawmakers can, simultaneously, frame cogent laws to overcome the pushy nuisance of evasion from traffic rules — so as to ensure that each n’ every life feels protected in a muscular way — and every-ones troubled vision of voyage — as a route towards gallows — is got washed out before any-one else turns a target of anomalous way of heading towards infinity n’ eternity, and that too — without any slip-up.

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