Saving lives in a melting pot of violence
An old man waits outside the emergency room at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi. – Photo by Sara Faruqi/Dawn.com
Karachi, according to Mercer’s Survey remains one of the most dangerous and volatile cities of the world. There are many days when one wakes up in the morning and goes to work considering all will be good, however, the situation changes in two shakes of a lamb’s tail as the day ends, with reverberation of gunshots, attacks of armed assailants and torched cars ruling the city.
Things were no different on May 22, 2012. I.I. Chundrigar Road, near the Governor House, becomes one of the most affected areas under such situations, with unruly mob pouncing the police and authorities reciprocating their sentiments with the same vigour. However, based on what can be seen evidently during such processions, the main focus of the police force remains to protect the government officials and their offices. The general modus operandi is to barricade all the roads leading to and from such high-value target sites creating worst of the traffic jams.
The chaos and state of anarchy is so infuriating that one has to ask whether civilians and Pakistanis who do not serve the government are not entitled to the same set of protection rules as the rulers? Shouldn’t the law-enforcers focus more on channelling and mobilising the wounded to the hospitals in time rather than barricading roads which further disrupts the flow of relief work?
Whether violence or such incidences can be prevented remains an arguable subject. However, the protection of lives is not. Saving and protecting human lives is the most pressing issue that should be given immediate attention once riots break out. Pedestrians, participants of rallies, media personnel and other people who get injured during cross-fire should become the first priority of law-enforcement agencies.
According to Dr Seemin Jamali, Deputy Director of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), establishing appropriate chains of command in different areas and proper means of communication are very important during such situations.
“Firstly it is very important for me to highlight that we are not informed by the law enforcement agencies about such political activities. We have to stay glued to the television screens to see if something that might blow out of proportion is happening around the city.”
“On May 22, I saw the rally on a private television channel and alerted my staff. We received nine cases of gunshot that day and the rest were sent to the Civil Hospital but it does not matter how many body counts you receive it’s about mobilising the staff and being on stand-by so that precious lives can be saved.”
It is not only hospitals employees that come to know about the riots or any other incident from the media. We all rely on media for information because the information ministry, whose primary role is to broadcast strategic and critical information, plays a negligible role when it comes to dissemination of important information. From postponement of board examinations to the news covering natural disasters, private news channels are the only information providers for the masses.
Another important point which requires attention is assessing the capacity of different state-owned hospital that cater to victims of violence. Globally, rallies and processions are chaperoned by ambulances and police so that proactive measures can be undertaken to avoid any untoward situation — a practice which is unheard of in Pakistan.
“Daily, we treat around 1,000 patients on an average in our emergency room and our facility of 150 beds is more than sufficient because patients are constantly rotated or discharged. However, it is very important to understand that there should be a chain of command at the site of the disaster that directs ambulances to different hospitals,” added Dr Jamali.
JPMC can only accommodate 150 patients in the ER, however, the 151st patient is sent either to Civil Hospital or Abbasi Shaheed, which might result in severe blood loss or death in certain cases. The best way to avoid this is to divert patients’ traffic and maintaining a record of the casualties accordingly. There is an urgent need to follow this practise in Karachi so that more lives can be saved.
Unfortunately every government hospital is not as open and welcoming to all as JPMC. A senior doctor, on condition of anonymity said that, “Abbasi Shaheed prioritises treatment according to victims’ ethnicity and Pashtuns are generally never admitted in the hospital no matter how critical their condition is.”
It is simply ironical how we conveniently segment each other on the grounds of social status, political affiliations and ethnicities so much so that the need of saving human lives is not even considered.
Deploying security personnel at hospitals to ensure proper mechanisms might be helpful in solving the situation to an extent. A paramedical nurse, on condition of anonymity said, “There are times when political activists threaten us and we have to work with a loaded gun pointed to our head. Then again there are times when 20 members of a gunshot victim are creating hue and cry over the situation. How can one work under such situations, especially without protection?”
Losing a brother, daughter, sister, son, friend or colleague is deeply saddening, however, we need to understand that in our grief we jeopardise the lives of many other people who can be brought back to life, if given a chance. Ganging up on the hospital staff only creates problems and hurdles in providing immaculate emergency treatment to the patients.
J K Rowling very aptly said that, “Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.”
Unfortunate and pessimistic as it may sound but it is true that violence is inevitable in Karachi so the only solace is to save as many lives as possible. Proper management techniques and acquiring basic civic sense might be helpful in reducing the fatalities because it is time that we start valuing human lives.
I still foresee glad tidings and a tolerant society where people are not discriminated on the basis of their caste, colour, creed or ethnicity, a society where lives are respected and are given first priority and a society where a few dirty droplets of water are unable to contaminate the entire ocean.
The writer is a Reporter at Dawn.com
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
Karachi is not the only exception to violence though recently it has been highlighted. The problem lies in the intolerant nature of most Pakistanis who have still not yet reconciled to the spirit of nationalism. The Pakistanis are as divisive on ethnic and language basis as they were in 1947 struggle for indepence from India on religious basis. It is extremely rare to hear from a Pakistani who is proud to say that he or she is a Pakistani first. Most identify themselves on basis of being Muhajirs (mostly Urdu speaking), Pushtoons, Balochis, Sindhis, Punjabis
this is destiney of krch.
It is responsibility of all the parties enjoying the government to maintain law and order.
Living in Karachi is like that ,we are going outside home but don't know whether will return on our own feet or in ambulance…strange but true! but yeah,saving lives should be the first priority rather than breaking news and live overages.
Karachi has turned into a battleground where ethnic and political parties for control of the city. It is also home to heavily armed criminal and drug gangs. Mafia groups have forged alliances with political and ethnic groups and religious extremists. The police and other securities agencies have either connections or political affiliations with political parties and gangesters, therefore, in such a situation, one cannot expect that peace will prevail in the city. It can happen only if the politcal parties shun violence and work for the welfare of the people. As for the Govt., it may select some spots, with the consultation of political parties, for political meetings, away from the commercial and residential areas, and these spot should be provided with media coverage, fool-proof security arrangements, emergency medicare and etc.
his violence has started because the pashtns are trying to gain control of the city and the urdu-speaking are resisting them. In the meanwhile, many innocent lives are being lost.
Keep your racially charged discriminatory comments to yourself Mr Asif.
Truth hurts? Without blaming one race, this was all started by the great dictator Zia to save his seat & now it is out of control.
I am neither a Pashtun nor an urdu speaking but only a patriot Pakistani and I can say it loudly that what ever you say Asif is so not true. It is because of people like you that the city of lights has streets filled with blood now.What Karachi is now is because of people of Pakistan who hate Pakistanis from the other part of their country and have absolutely no tolerance for others.
I predicted 40 years ago that people will forget Kashmir because it will be replaced by Karachi. So there it is, take it or leave it.
How did you arrive at that conclusion back then?
This situation was totally unpredictable 40 years back, how could you predict it then?
Politicians are greedy and masses are impatient. We need to create a balance in order to overcome these crises. In developed countries, government officials never travel with large caravans or with a huge protocol. One day we were crossing a road and one of my friends said, “That guy is a mayor of this city". He was walking along the road without any security personnel. It made us to think for a while about situation in Pakistan. The thing which pinches me is that most of our ruling class have spent some of their time in these countries and have not learnt anything. They try to imitate them in terms of style why don't they follow their code of ethics, moral values, and way of leading and managing. Fault here is of those who know everything but don't care. On the other hand, our ordinary masses are very impatient in terms of religion, culture and ethnic backgrounds. In Karachi, there is a sectarian, ethnic, political and linguistic violence. Everybody is very intolerant and cannot bear a single harsh word. In order to overcome current situation we need to be flexible, patient and tolerant so that we can build a prosperous Pakistan. Hope and pray everything turns out well.
………..hamid, you have well taken the point without telling the roots and the reasons of such behaviour of our rulers! you know there is something called public intererst and public values; these are a set of attributes found in the people, both within and outside the govt, which implicitly tells them as to how to behave when the issue falls outside one's private interest. this set of values only emerges in the societies after they have repeatedly seen that they are being ruled by the people who were elected by them, the people! but it is not found in the people and societies where the proces of voting is regularly flouted – the vote of the people is rigged massively and those who come to rule are not the representatives of people. then these people called rulers are afraid of their lives; they do every thing to protect themselves, at the expence of common man, nd the nation has to wonder as to why we have repeatedly flouted the will of the people, which in the west is called popular sovereignty, which we are deeply afraid of – and hence the lack of required moral values in the society! this means every body unoto themselves!
Just incredible to us.
Every American hospital has private armed security guards, or state police and Americans seldom cause problems in a hospital. Neither do they enter hospitals in gaggles or gangs.
Anyone holding a gun to a doctor or medical worker's head in an emergency room or an operating room is very likely to be shot dead on the spot.. If I witnessed a man holding a gun to a doctor's head I would take the gun away from him, or make him eat it, or both.
Pakistan seems totally chaotic from what I am reading here each day. The Chinese would at least criticize themselves for standing by and doing nothing.
Karachi is like .. unpredictable, a lil bit…A Lil bit! like Los Angeles, cuz gang violence / street crime is there to. but ppl dont show all that much, no 1 wants to spoil their countries reputation. un like Pakistani News brodcast channels!