Shameful Blame Game – Journal

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WATCHING a human tragedy become subsumed into a political blame game is always painful. This is exactly what happened in the National Assembly on Monday when lawmakers decided to debate the causes and shortcomings that led to the preventable loss of at least 23 lives, including women and children, after that thousands of people in their vehicles got stranded in a massive snowstorm in and around Murree. The opposition was within its rights when PML-N chairman Shahbaz Sharif expressed his lack of confidence in a committee formed by the government of Punjab to investigate the tragic events of the past weekend. He wanted the government to set up a judicial commission to set responsibilities. What’s wrong with this request? If the government can set up judicial commissions on other matters, why could it not accept the request for oppositions? Unfortunately, the Treasury Banks saw this as an opportunity to score points and assaulted the opposition leader, accusing previous PML-N governments of doing nothing for tourism in the country instead of explaining their reasons. , if they had a valid justification. , for opposing the suggestion. The government has not even considered another ANP proposal to create a bipartisan parliamentary body to investigate the tragedy.

Opposition parties are not the only ones to blame the Punjab government and by extension the Imran Khan administration for failing to take prior action to prevent the disaster despite forecasts of heavy snowfall by the Met Office and its government. warning authorities to be vigilant in bad weather. could force road closures in an area where vehicle mobility is problematic even under normal conditions. Rather than mobilizing machines to clear snow-covered roads for smooth traffic and issue alerts to warn incoming tourists or turn them back, the administration let them in. Meanwhile, as PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari pointed out, ministers signaled the arrival of tens of thousands of cars in Murree, a sign of the increase in domestic tourism and economic recovery achieved under the regime. PTI.

That’s not all. When the tragedy began, there was no one to answer the SOS calls from those trapped in the snow or their frantic families and friends. Help arrived too late and too slowly, with a delay of at least 20 hours. And when news of several deaths broke, the government first blamed the victims for ignoring the weather forecast, then the disaster management authority and local administration for their inaction. The Prime Minister tweeted that he was shocked and upset by the tragedy. While everyone, from the country’s chief executive to the leader of the opposition, agrees that the tragedy was preventable without the lack of preparation of the authorities concerned, it is difficult to grasp the logic behind the rejection of the request for a judicial inquiry.

Posted in Dawn, le 12 January 2022

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