Lahore Metro Train : Orange Line

Jolie · February 5, 2016, 10:41am

Re: Lahore Metro Train : Orange Line

**No ones arguing against the importance of the opposition. But let it productive opposition. Lets not be antagonistic for the sake of being antagonistic. The Dharnas and sit ins are useless. In the case of the Metro bus, CPEC etc, the opposition seems to protesting just for the sake of it. So sure, you dont agree with the way in which the Metro Bus was built or is operating… But at least acknowledge that such a system is important to have. But the opposition doesnt even admit to that. They simply oppose it outright, without even considering the benefit to the public. It seems like political point scoring, not productive criticism. **

A proper transit system is one which is organized and efficient. Private buses and rickshaws just dont cut it. There is no modern city without a proper transit system. I dont know of any large city other then Karachi, that relies on and functions efficiently, with just private transport. My understanding is that they plan to expand the system in the future. It wont be just this one corridor. Corruption in this case obviously cant be proven, but I like to think that the advantages outweigh costs. i

Almost all Public transit, anywhere in the world, runs in the red. The saving comes through its overall benefit to the average rider, and by extension the rest of the economy. Yes it costs money to run, but what about the money it saves the riders? Thats money they can now put back into the economy. That a poor student or a laborer or anyone living pay check to pay check, can now reach his/her destination economically and efficiently, is true empowerment. There is the benefit of reduced stress for riders, increased productivity, improved health… I mean the benefits of mass transit are immense.
Look at property values. Prices have jumped along that route… Another benefit to the overall economy.

Its not just time that we need to fix things… Its “productive time.” Meaning we build the institutions, we allow them to function, we empower people to vote and express their opinion, legislation is passed, reforms are introduced… Yes things need to change, but revolution brings about even more instability then it seeks to cure. What I see from this current opposition is revolutionary mindset… To quote George RR Martin, they would see the country burn if they could rule over the ashes.

Pakistan grew in the past but its was the inherent instability in the political system which meant no long term progress could be made. Army men come and overturn institutions, then democratic govts come and overturn that. India’s biggest benefit is its political stability… Stable environments encourage growth and investment.

This is simply not true at all. You seem quite misinformed on the whole issue. If opposition didn’t believe the importance of mass transit than likes of Karachi and Peshawar wouldn’t be asking for an approval of a similar system of their own and funded by their own provisional budgets, from PMLN led Federal government. Things are not as black and white. You really need to differentiate between the concept of mass transit system which is wholly beneficial and PMLN style ‘Metro project’ which has so many blackholes and drawbacks. If you don’t want to hear any opposition to projects you don’t like, that’s fine, but you can’t call it an opposition of sake of opposition. That’s how opposition is suppressed and dismissed under dictatorship, not in democracies!

This is not the right attitude. As much you personally like to downplay corruption and massive cost of the project, it is extremely naive to assume that opposition parties won’t pick up on it, and they should simply just make peace with it? Why should they? India had managed to come this far because despite weak governments, India always had a tradition of producing strong opposition that’s why they didn’t really need a third party to keep things in checks and balance. Condemning the opposition view is such anti-intellectual attitude that stops people from thinking, analyzing things, learning from mistakes and striving for better. Metro project cannot be above criticism, it was crictsim of Metro that made KPK Gov come up with a mass transit plan that wouldn’t even cost half the price of Lahore Metro. So yes, constructive criticism is essential and it never goes in vain. If someone says that instead of pouring all the debt money in highly subsidized extravagant lollipop projects to win the next elections, money and energies should be invested in launching some kind of education emergency and pass reforms to build institution. If you don’t agree with such ideas, that’s fine, but don’t call them useless!

Again, institutions are not built by sitting idle and hoping that time alone will fix them. Institutions are build when you acknowledge and accept that there are faults that needed to be fixed. From my experience people who use the whole rhetoric of institution building are also the first one to get defensive and obstructive the moment any non-performing and politicised institution lands in hot water. Classic example would be ECP.

As with Metro project, you are simply looking at qualitative analysis of mass transit system which I don’t disagree with, but I am more concerned about quantitative drawbacks and strain of debt ridden mega expensive projects like Punjab Metro on Pakistan’s economy and growth. You simply won’t understand the other side of argument, so it’s a pointless debate.

Just so you know, Peshawar wants its Mass Transit and PMLN led Federal government is blocking that. Again you are going to pretend that Pakistan is Scandinavian country, you can possibly fathom any dirty politics is being played at top level by hands of parties like PMLN. So I’m really not going to go into this.