The Pakistani Spectator

Traffic signs identification and their meanings plus the road sense should have been developed in us as part of the school training. Unfortunately serious attention is not given to this particular area. Special awareness programs should be developed for the rural areas in order to educate the people to minimize the life loss and accidents ratio due to ignoring of traffic rules.

The licensing authorities take a brief test from the candidates and they are on the road. The way people drive on the roads these days, the whole procedure of issuance of driving licenses is questionable. There is not penalty points system valid in Pakistan, people are booked on traffic violations, they pay fines and they are good to drive. There should be serious penalties like suspension of license and cancellation of license in case of dangerous violations. Road fitness certificates should by issued twice a year to monitor the state of the cars to decide whether these should be allowed to be on roads or not.

The worst part is over speeding in the residential areas where youngsters do not slow down cars for allowing ladies and families to cross the road. Similar situation is in the shopping malls, loud music is heard in cars and people tend to move in with high speed even in the areas crowded by pedestrians. As a matter of courtesy one should slow down the speed of the car or stop it for few seconds to allow ladies and children to cross the road.

The sudden urge on our lower middle income class to have every thing over night the Elite class enjoys, is making people to gather money by unfair means and buying big houses and Cars to get out of the complex they had been for years and in order to show their wealth you will often find them showing off and do nasty things especially driving their super saloons on the road.

We must learn to respect people in order to earn respect for us. It is always good to live your life by the laws of the state and by the laws of our wonderful Religion Islam. We need to have tolerance, patience and love for the fellow human beings to go for a peaceful co-existence. We seem to be busy in a rat race of having more than the people around us, the lust for wealth is taken us to no where except the road to destruction. It is not always the State’s responsibility to play the role of a watch dog and the Punisher, we must develop a civic sense with in us to realize our responsibility as a citizen of Pakistan.

Over speeding on the roads, passing nasty remarks on the young females and ladies, trying confusing the female drivers on the roads with close passes with their cars or stopping the cars with sudden full breaks application does not reflect a good impression of us all as a Good Nation. There should be other ideas of enjoyment rather than teasing the females. Here a major role has to be played by the law enforcing agencies and Judiciary, we have seen that people who have good links and belong to the elite class of the society, they can get away from such crimes easily and at times can get away with murder as well.

People of  Pakistan need some thing to cheer about, we are already under great deal of stress with the ever rising cost of living and income resources still very limited, lack of road sense, lack of discipline, un-equal distribution of wealth, lawlessness,  lack of opportunities for lower middle class, high education costs, high costs of medical treatment and top of that if we see a storm of ill mannerism on the malls and streets, it gives us no hope combined with great deal of frustration.

Lets correct our ways on the individual level first and then the combined effort from all of us would give us a healthy living and stress free life.