Cricket-security and public inconvenience

Cricket-security and public inconvenience

No one can argue that Pakistani nation needs cricket matches in Pakistan. A cricket loving nation wants to see international teams coming to Pakistan to play competitive cricket. We all wanted to see international cricket returning to Pakistan. We all want to see Australia- England- India and South Africa playing in Pakistan. We wanted to see our young and rising stars playing in front of home crowd. We all wanted to see our jam-packed stadiums and cheering crowd.

It is welcoming step that first Sri Lanka played tests and one day internationals in Pakistan. Now Bangladesh cricket team is playing T20 series in Lahore. The preparations are underway to organise all the matches of PSL season 5 in Pakistan. It’s good news for cricketing loving fans.

Cricket is not only a major sport in Pakistan that many people play across the country. But it also provides much needed entertainment to people of Pakistan. We were deprived of this entertainment because of violence and bombings. The menace of terrorism deprived Pakistan from hosting international sports events including cricket matches. It is fascinating to see cricket returning to Pakistan as violence significantly reduced and controlled. The normalcy returned.

But there is another aspect of this encouraging development. The public inconvenience caused to the general public in the name of the security. Nobody can deny the fact that visiting international teams and players need proper security. We must not allow what happened to Sri Lankan team in Lahore in 2009 which closed the doors of international cricket in Pakistan for many years. But sort of security arrangements we made could be reviewed to minimise the public hassle.

Why it is necessary to close down shops around Gaddafi Stadium Lahore or National stadium Karachi? Why the road closures are necessary which cause major traffic disruptions and jams at various roads? Why it is necessary to shutdown Metro Bus Service and other public transport routes in the Lahore?

 Why we know only one pattern or method of security which cause big inconvenience to people. Why common people have to suffer all the time? Why our fuels have to burn in traffic? Why our time has to get wasted there?  Why our normal daily life has to suffer or even halted?

Every day millions travel inside the city in Lahore or Karachi for work-study and other reasons. Majority used public transport to commute. When we close down Metro it practically cause inconvenience to 0.145 million people every day. Other public transport routs cut short which deprive the thousands of students- workers and small traders from commuting.

Lahore has more than 15 million populations while Karachi has nearly 20 million. The transport system is already crippling down. Such extreme measures cause more problems to the general public.

The closure of shops and main markets deprive hundreds of daily wage labourers and street vendors from their livelihood. They earn money on daily basis to feed their families.

The police and security agencies need to rearrange the security arrangements in a way that cause minimum problems to the people. Entertainment should not come at high public cost. How long we can continue with that sort of security model.  

Thousands of security personnel are deployed. It creates curfew like situation instead of festive atmosphere. We need to adopt modern security measures and methods to provide maximum security and comfort to international teams and cricket fans but without creating problems for general public.

                                            The Editor