In Ramazan, when the red light means go!

Karachi
As I headed towards Gurumandir Chowrangi in my insipid ’96 Suzuki Khyber, I thought back to those intimidating but also liberating driving lessons with Dad three years ago. Evergreen and invaluable quotes articulated in his authoritative voice rang out in my head. “They’re out to get you”, “They will come from anywhere without giving it a second’s thought” and “The brake pedal is the most important of all”. I exhaled mournfully and progressed forward, I knew it was coming.
Reproachfully, I surveyed the plague ahead. Truck horns blared endlessly, bike riders squeezed themselves through the smallest of gaps they could find, agitated drivers cussed at each other violently. I plunged into the jam because that was the only way I could go. I inched ahead after an agonising wait of about 10 minutes only to find my path blocked by a true devotee serving sharbat to a Suzuki van chock-full of people who were just seconds before complaining about how these sharbat servers clogged the road.
Any driver in Karachi would instantly relate to the parts described in the anecdote above. It is all too familiar. Driving in Karachi is a stressful endeavour as it is but Ramazan tends to worsen the situation.
Since the holy month began almost two weeks ago, ravenous drivers cut through traffic impatiently and pedestrians who lack any road sense occupy the most inconvenient of spots on the street as though it were their living room. Come night time and ironically the City of Lights is aggravatingly deprived of streetlights.
Talking to The News, some drivers shared their thoughts. “We risk life and limb,” one said, “it is dangerous to be stuck in traffic in this heat. One can suffer a heatstroke if the air-conditioning is not functional.”
Another said angrily, “Bikers and rickshaw waalas take all the space.”
A traffic management and enforcement plan was prepared especially for the holy month of Ramazan, the objective of which was to ensure the smooth flow of traffic particularly before iftar time. It declared that traffic wardens would assist traffic police at busy intersections and jammed roads, and that street hawkers and food stalls would be removed from such streets to prevent gridlocks.
Talking to The News, assistant sub-inspector Mohammad Mumtaz of the traffic police, said during Ramazan he and his team arrived earlier in the morning to their positions at II Chundrigar Road than they normally did, so that the public could reach their workplaces on time. And as offices are off at a quarter past two in the middle of the day, Mumtaz and his team are already active 40 minutes earlier, all to ensure a smooth flow of traffic.
According to Mumtaz, the primary issue is the public’s disregard for traffic rules and regulations. A change in the public’s mindset is the key, he maintained.
“Dunya chaand pe pohanch gayi aur humaray log abhe tak danda aur rassi se chal rahay hain (The world has reached the moon and our people still require sticks and ropes to function),” he remarked.
“Even the tape barricades police use to separate traffic lanes are burnt by drivers’ cigarettes or altogether stolen for towing purposes.”
While the ASI has made a fair point, one cannot ignore the ineptitude of government institutions in providing the public with a proper working traffic system.
Traffic signals are all but functional and roads are erratic as though made to actively remind the public of government inactivity.
Driving in this city is equivalent to manoeuvring through an obstacle course if one were to ponder on the subject; a noisy, smelly, exasperating, and locomotive obstacle course. We as citizens deserve better. Period!
That said, we drivers and pedestrians must own up to ourselves and realise that our indifference towards traffic regulations only serves to maintain the very irksome issues we all despise.
Let us all brake more like my dad advises perpetually, stop defacing traffic signs with nauseating looking paan stains, and consume our sharbat indoors!