Glaring Class Differences in Pakistan!
By Rafiq Ebrahim
Winfield IL
It was exhilarating to set foot on the home soil of Pakistan after two decades. Though the temperature, even in the early hours of the morning, was high we felt comfortable in our host’s luxurious house. I later found out that most of the houses in Defense and Clifton areas are stacked with luxury. There are swimming pools in most basements, big screen TVs with the facility of more that 100 channels, TV and guest lounges, more than one dining hall, fish ponds, rock gardens, and a guard with a gun at the entrance.
Wow! An entirely different face of Karachi! Life was never so luxurious when I had left Pakistan to settle in the USA in 1990.
Going out in my cousin’s chauffeur-driven car, we were soon caught in a traffic maze. A minibus passed by speedily just about an inch away from the side of our car, then a scooter driver passed by right in front. We stopped at the traffic signal with the red light, but some other cars didn’t. It was so difficult to manipulate, but our driver was at his ease, smiling. “It is always like that,” he said. “One just has to have a knack at maneuvering, as many drivers simply do not follow the traffic rules.”
We came to Garden East, which was once an area for the elite mostly populated by Ismailis since their main Jamaat Khana was there. Now it is almost a slum. The big housing complexes betray signs of neglect, and the water from gutters overflows the streets. We drove further towards Golimar, Federal Area and Nazimabad and saw housing complexes of the middle class, intermingled with pathetic living places of extremely poor people who live in cell-like structures, without the basic facilities of life.
One cannot help feeling depressed after seeing such dismal sights and visualizing the living conditions on the other side of the ‘great divide’- the Clifton Bridge.
Our driver, Afzal, looking at my face said, “This is the living standard of more than eighty percent of the population. As for me, I hardly manage to live with my family with my present salary of seven thousand rupees (about seventy dollars) a month. My wife is sick. I took her to one of the government hospitals where she was given a referral for some lab work. I took her to a free lab, where after waiting for a couple of hours we were told to go to another lab, as the machine at that lab was malfunctioning. The other lab gave me a bill for 3,000 rupees! ”
The next day I visited a local bazaar where I met with a few people. Rahim, who was selling vegetables on a cart, told me that he earns a few thousand rupees a month, selling vegetables in the scorching heat the whole day. “Sahab, this is our present, and this is also our future. I can’t afford to put my children in school. My son who is ten will soon start working to supplement the household income.”
People who live in these places use minibuses, or sometimes even donkey-carts for their commute. They fetch water in buckets from faraway centers, as they don’t have any water coming to their homes. Good schools are a far cry for their children. And when they fall sick, only God heals them, as medical facilities are difficult to obtain. Most of them are also jobless! Frustrated young men resort to drugs, or commit crimes in their effort to make reality better.
The plight of the masses is deplorable, but what about the future? These people have little hope and they see a grim future.
It is the people who make a nation prosperous and progressive, and if more than 80 percent of the population is poverty-stricken and miserable, how can they contribute to the progress of the nation?
Can’t something be done for them? Surely, our government can take immediate steps to ease the condition of the masses. They can put in a fleet of buses, provide clean water, control prices of everyday commodities, ensure free education for poor children, provide affordable housing and better medical facilities at government hospitals.
The affluent class should also come to the fore. In the USA and other developed countries there is a charitable organization at every step and for every cause. People with money are always keen to launch their own humanitarian set-ups. But that is not the case in Pakistan. Only a few genuine humanitarian organizations undertake noble tasks.
