Trudging Along

Asem Mustafa Awan

The family of six all huddled together and trudging along on a cheap motorcycle may bring smiles to many but this is the life of many, and the number exceeds hundreds of millions.

He is one of the blessed few in Pakistan to own a motorcycle and with a green helmet representing the motorcycle as a public service career, he is laboriously working to make ends meet.

The job, if any, he does will be a minion one, as the state he is in has very little room for him to progress.

This picture states the nation’s overall plight as a working class that lives by the day and survives each day. He has his entire world riding alongside him on a trip that is full of trials and tribulations with no respite in sight.

The family of six with four children has only one breadwinner and God forbid if he met with an accident, what happens then? This picture should ring a bell for the people at the helm of affairs to see where and when they have gone wrong.

Billions are being doled out on projects in different schemes but will they really reach the deserving? This is a question and the answer to this query lies also in billions, and its quest costs life.

It is no less than a miracle that the land of the pure went through upheaval and is still intact, unlike Sri Lanka, where masses took to the road and are now on the road to recovery.

Will the tides turn for Pakistan? This scribe also awaits it with the rest of the nation.

The writer is a journalist based in Islamabad and writes on a wide range of issues.

Photo Credit: Khurram Butt