VIP blockades

We are all familiar with the VIP culture in our country. Indeed, we experience it virtually every day. It comes in the form of roads being closed to allow VIPs to move around our cities, delays in flights to allow ministers or other ‘important’ persons to board at their own convenience and long holdups in other places caused by VIP movement. The consequences have in some cases been dangerous with ambulances blocked or ordinary citizens prevented from performing important duties. In one place at least, thanks mainly to the efforts of law-enforcement agencies, the problem appears to have eased somewhat. The Seaview Road in front of Bilawal House in Karachi is now open to traffic after Asif Ali Zardari announced – according to some reports after the KMC bulldozers had started moving – that despite security threats the barriers that have stood there for years were being removed. Other walls constructed around the building, however, remain in place for now. This is also not as entirely magnanimous a gesture as Zardari made out. It came after Rangers, following the operations at Nine-Zero, warned that all obstacles and barriers in the city placed by VIP figures have to go. They pointed out that these warnings had been made earlier but went unheeded. Significantly the PPP initially appeared to oppose the demand by Rangers and insisted the multiple blockades had to stay. However, the party has chosen not to take on the law-enforcement agencies who are right now working on a war footing in Karachi.
For the people of Karachi the lifting of the barriers comes as a huge relief. Their presence at a key location had created a huge hindrance to the flow of traffic and led to backlog that continued at times for kilometres. The suddenly freer passage way demonstrates what a difference such measures can make to the quality of life for people. We must hope that this move will lead to similar measures being taken in other places. Barriers put up by VIPs are a common part of the landscape in all our major cities. In many cases they are placed outside homes not just by politicians but also major business figures, entertainers, religious leaders and others who occupy a prominent position in society. Even TV anchorpersons have them in place outside their homes. This culture is one that needs to end and a good start towards this has been made with the barriers removed from first the MQM headquarters at Nine-Zero and now Bilawal House. We hope other barriers too will now come tumbling down.