The Beautiful City
Rana Rizwan Hussain
The city has been beautified. New roads, underpasses and over bridges have been built. Many of the old ones have been renovated. What a pleasant feeling it is to drive on these roads, particularly when these roads have been decorated with the pelmets of green grass and flowers. Although, some parts of the city have been completely neglected but let’s not look at those ugly parts at the moment and give full credit to the government. Yes, I am speaking of Lahore, which has consumed the major portion of the provincial budget, may be it deserved this because of its being the provincial capital, fair enough and let’s not disagree. Even if we do, it won’t make much difference, because we don’t have any say before the authorities. Special TV shows have been done to boast of the development works of Lahore. Pleased of these developments, the heads of the foreign states are also invited to come, visit and appreciate our city and if the reader allows me some courage then let me say that at the end we also expect some gifts or donations. May those be in the form of litter cans or something else (What a shame!). Whatever it is, let us acknowledge that the development work has been done in the city and this fact can’t be denied. Devil should be given its due. The situation of Lahore reminds me of a story “The Beautiful City” which once constituted the part of matriculation course. There is a constraint of space but I would love to share that story as it precisely conveys the purpose of this piece of writing;
“Once upon a time there were three kings who had their kingdoms next to each other. In one of their meetings together they decided to visit each other’s kingdom after a period of one year and see who was able to convert his kingdom into the most beautiful one. When the time for meeting came each one of them was very happy and looked at his city proudly. The three kings along with their judges set off on the tour to see the beauty of the city of the first king. During the tour the kings and the judges noticed that there was not even a single shabby or ugly building left. Roads were clean and wide and city shone with newly-cut stone. Everyone appreciated the construction work done in the city but when they looked at the people who stood or walked about the streets, they looked pale, weak and poor with tired faces and children with thin legs and solemn faces. People were too tired, ill or unhappy to cheer their king as he passed. Next day the kings and the judges went for a tour to the city of the second king. They drove around the city and had number of beautiful sights. Every road was lined by a trim green verge. Flower brushes and trees made splashes of colour and beautiful hedges took the place of fences and walls. Flowers in hundreds and thousands met the visitors’ eyes as they drove around but here again the people did not match the beautiful city. “The children should look like flowers, too,” murmured one judge to another. Next day when the coaches set off for visiting the city of the third king, they noticed that the roads and streets of the king were lined with people, clapping and laughing as they cheered the passing of their king. Everyone was dressed in bright gay colour and their faces were full of joy. All seemed to be strong and healthy with rosy faces and straight and sturdy limbs and the children were the best sight of all. Standing at the roadside in little groups were boys and girls as they had come out of their schools. All wore the prettiest cloths in dozens of different colours. Their faces were bright and smiling as they waved flags or threw flowers to their kings. Their voices were strong and sweet when they sang to him as he passed. Nobody noticed if every building was perfect or if all the waste ground had been tidied up. The three kings and the judges could not take their eyes off the children. At last the tour was over and the three kings and the judges met in the palace of the third king. After some time of silence, one of the judges spoke out and said that the city of the third king was the most beautiful he had ever seen. The second judge added that the buildings and the gardens of the first two cities were indeed the wonderful sights but happiness of people was much better than that. Agreed the third judge, saying that the people were of more importance than buildings and gardens. The king of that city concluded the conversation with his final remarks that with the people healthy and happy everything is possible and the other two kings also desired to make their kingdoms as that of the third king.”
I miss old school days!
Everyone knows that whenever any head of a foreign state travels on the roads of Pakistan, common public is not allowed to show its appearance to him. Signals are closed, traffic is diverted, and the pedestrians’ walk is halted. This is commonly observed here. Therefore, unlike the above narrated story, the foreign guests can hardly notice the pale faces of the poverty stricken masses, especially of those who stand in the city squares and wait whole day long for the labour for earning single time bread for their family. But still they can see that all on TV channels and in the newspapers. After travelling in Pakistan, those rulers may be questioning themselves that why the rulers of this country are neglecting the masses and focusing the construction and beautification works. They may be wondering that the leadership of this country lacks vision and wisdom of governance. They may also be thinking that these rulers have no concept of policy making in which they can set the priorities in fulfilling the public requirement. Certainly, they can also doubt the sincerity of our leadership with the public. They must be standing sure that the parliamentarians of this country go to the parliament houses just for napping and not for raising public issues and for holding of parliamentary debates. Through these debates the elected representatives can highlight the problems of their constituencies and above all they can restrain the misuse of public funds by the functionaries. Those foreigners must be developing a view at the end that despite having a democratic system the masses of this country are the victims of the monarchs who sole handedly make policy decisions and use members of the parliaments as puppets. These rulers fulfill their personal desires out of the public money and that too without any accountability.
Our leaders fail to set the priorities in public welfare projects because they are least interested in resolving public issues. This is because of their lack of passion for the common public. Before spending billions of rupees upon a single project they have to ascertain the real public issues. Having ascertained the issues they must set the correct priorities for redressing those issues and provide them with the best possible solutions in suitability with the economics. Every issue should be dealt with on behest of its priority. Government being the custodian of public money should spend it in a most careful manner and in a way which provides equal opportunity of benefit to everyone. They have to make the cost and benefit analysis before making huge outflows of money. Our leaders must know that providing people with the clean drinking water, food, health, inhabitation and education comes prior to the construction of buildings and roads. If our leaders can so easily be fascinated by the construction projects of the foreign countries, which those countries developed after providing basic facilities to their public, they should also be inspired of the living standard of the people there and work for it too in Pakistan. Our leaders have to prioritize the basic necessities of life of the common public upon any other development project or the reader of this article would understand that they lack the required wisdom of leadership and need to get back to school for learning the lessons which they missed. As there is no shame in late learning and it is yet better than never learning.
Writer is a Lahore based practicing lawyer and a lecturer in laws – Email: –hnachambers@gmail.com
ranarizwanhussain 