There are generally three kinds of people that one comes across in the functional spaces of our society;the ones who facilitate,others who obstruct and the last who just sit on the fence and watch quietly in their inescapable impotence,moral paralysis and a frosty unconcern of a people who neither have much left to lose nor care enough to be moved about others’ loss or discomfort.

Let me explain what do I mean really by functional space in our society and why did I mention only three  types of toilers.To my mind a functional space is the working heart of a society where very basic and fundamental business of life is conducted,pulse of life radiates up and down and sideways. There are other yeomen of society like the scholars and researchers who are busy searching ways of improving quality of life,polish thinking ability and open new horizons,the upper crust who traditionally skim the cream and live a life of wealth and blissful comfort bordering on exploitation and vulgarity of excessive richness. They live above the clouds in the misty Nathiagalis of luxury, abundance and wasteful spending.

Then we have a peculiar officialdom who  pretend to serve the common man but in fact leech on them and the soldiery which uses Panaflex banners solemnly assuring security from aggression and lift a lion’s share of the treasury preparing for the same.Since conventional wars are now mostly limited to either few patches of the third world or bleeding ribs of the world powers therefore in order to keep busy most knights in the shining armor indulge in profitable preoccupations after spit and polish of the commemorative military parades,lest a battlefield deployment becomes necessary.

All of this and much more is taking place under the deluxe marquee of our political overlords, both of local variety and foreign.

There are a number of other sub species which crawl around in this pit of human activity like tradesmen, peasants, pleasure at leisure troupes, dream merchants ,faith vendors and the sort which one had dealt with in earlier write ups therefore need not mention here.Reverting to the teeming mass of not so significant but rumbling people whom one meets at every step of the way ,turn of the street and front desk of a govt office.But what is it about them?Just because most are naggingly incompetent, irksomely  obtrusive and some outright obstinate? That they delay, divert and finally dump matters that can be done in a few minutes, that they simply have no heart to shoulder even a small responsibility?

I remember In a state  university in Islamabad even the weekly duty roster of a dozen or so guards used to be approved by no less than the Vice Chancellor himself despite a full scale administrative department. Can you beat this? But then one has to be realistic as the official system is thoroughly rotten and destroyed root and branch by its own custodians. There is no fear of accountability, performance audit, penalty for neglect nor incentive for diligence or dutiful hard work. Eveyother employee in every department carries an influential reference or remote patron watching over it.

  There is a newer trend becoming visible where senior bosses engage winsome female secretaries, elegant PSOs or chic escorts, as door openers, to add to the halo of their aura or simply to look more dashing; you know what one means. It may be a bold statement to make but is loaded with perilous consequences. For one it militates against the formal work culture and fairly dissuasive as looks tend to override merit, executive discretions and not capability get the better of it and finally lends office environment open to undesirable whispers.

The purpose behind this longish introduction was to highlight avoidable obstacles to optimum efficiency and an energetic response to the demands of duty, mainly in the perceptual or moral domain. Entering the physical domain one is rudely jolted by unmarked, humpy and frequently occurring speed breakers on the main roads, side roads and street interiors. They are so many and so abundant that the entire country seems to be full of all varieties of this traffic nuisance.

As if this was not enough ,every body who is anybody in the scheme of power in our country has put up a barrier wherever it suits his privilege or prestige regardless of a common road, street or an entrance to a public place or office.There is a third and a more menacing but apparently emotionless official presence known as a check post. What a living example of a pointless and nearly comical arrangement most of these checkposts are.Slow,cumbersome, clueless but conducted with great pomp and officiousness regardless of how much inconvenience it might cause to the commuters or what little or nothing they might detect.

    It is in the fitness of things to lookat an example of just such a mighty check post in Islamabad which grew up from a polite caution to ‘slow down work in progress’ into a full scale brooding Police checkpost of zigzagging road blocks,warning sign posts and a sun shelter for passengers converted into Police resting shed on the main Murree Road just short of Rawal underpass.It serves no policing purpose just as other such objects of our abiding national dismay do, except cause  commuter frustration, needless delay in the flow of traffic during peak hours and net poor vegetables or fruits laden Suzuki pick ups, a household goods loaded Shazore carrier or an odd alien looking car driver.It is difficult to imagine how and why could their officers remain aloof from the ridicule which these lower rank Policemen gather in buckets full from the people on daily basis. It can not be a welcome addition to the store of their self esteem in any case.

    Cumulative effect of these disgusting obstructions  both in moral and physical domains coupled with the run away cost of living, inert dispensation of justice, lawlessness, crime and chronic insecurity is driving people crazy. They are becoming dangerously bitter, nettlesome and coiling up inwards. Courtesy, good manners, cheerfulness and empathy are becoming rare  just as basic animal instincts of aggression and survival are resurfacing with a vengeance. Our society has become a huge pile of gun powder which can explode any time should the governance apathy, criminality of obstructiveness and vulgar obstinacy of intrusive official and gang power continue the way it is.Fit into this the tools of state coercion like Vigo based abductions, days of  physical torture by the faceless men, arbitrary destruction of homes, properties and businesses , all adding to the popular malice . Mass raids on the houses of the political opponents and brutal treatment of their women, children and the sick is causing serious loathing among victims and disgust in general public.

So much more of this orgy of lawlessness is going unchecked and without any remorse or corrective action by the state or empathy by those in power.In fact an impression is forming that they are just not pushed about the plight of the victims of their excesses.The state and the impervious system are literally  provoking a response whose ferocity they can  never withstand once it is mounted by the people.It is unwise and fraught with unthinkable consequences to wait for the dam to break or another Balakot.