Pedestrians reluctant to use overhead bridges

[Salman]

Pedestrians reluctant to use overhead bridges

ISLAMABAD - Most of the residents living across the Islamabad Expressway seem to have no interest in using the overhead bridges built on various points to facilitate them.
Despite warnings by the police and traffic instructions, pedestrians seem to not take that extra effort to climb the bridges, and instead, just walk across the road.
Pedestrian are generally reluctant to use the nearby overhead bridges like the old guy saying: “I’m in a hurry, I don’t care. I have to reach office.”
An official of Islamabad Traffic Police said that they were doing their best to educate the road users and different sign boards have been installed to guide the road users. “I agree that most of the pedestrians prefer short-cut, avoid use of these overhead bridges and face road accidents”, he said.
Several fatal and non-fatal road accidents have occurred on the Islamabad Expressway due to the negligence of pedestrians who jump at the road. The official said that police would continue efforts to educate road users.
He requested the people to use overhead bridges as they were erected for their safety. The Expressway is one of the busiest road of the city as most of the traffic coming from Lahore use it to enter Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Muhammad Afzal, a car owner talking to this agency said the government has spent millions of rupees to facilitate people living across the Expressway for their safety, but most of the pedestrians are not using this facility, he regretted.
Muhammad Shafi a public transport driver of route 21, said mostly people do not use the bridge for crossing the road and disturb the flow of traffic.
Irshad Hussain, a government employee said the he always use overhead bridges as these have been installed to facilitate the public.
Talking to this news agency, a spokesman of Capital Development Authority (CDA) said a proposal was being considered to construct a six-feet high safety wall along the Islamabad Expressway to discourage the pedestrians from crossing the road other than designated places but due to financial crunch the plan had been dropped.
To a question he said overhead bridges will be installed at Zero Point Interchange for which a contract has been awarded to Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC) for construction of the bridges. The HMC would install the bridges soon, he added.
Amendments in Child Marriages Restraint Act demanded: Civil Society organisations have demanded for protecting young girls from early marriages and review the existing law (Child Marriages Restriction Act 1929) and make it responsive to the current needs.
This demand was raised during a national conference on “Impact of girls’ early marriages”, held here on Tuesday in collaboration with Action Aid Pakistan and Bedari (NGO).
The conference was started with a welcome note by Country Director, Action Aid Pakistan, Asad Jemal.
Bedari theater team performed its play “Yeh shadi nai ho sakti”, which highlighted the need for amending the Child Marriages Restraint Act 1929.
The conference consists of three panels. The first panel focused on the social, psychological and sexual reproductive health impact of girls’ early marriages.
Dr Rakhshinda Parveen, Mrs Nabila Malick, Zia-ur-Rehman and Saleem Malik spoke on this issue and answered the questions raised by the audience.
In the second session, the discussion was focused on the need for amending the Child Marriages Restraint Act 1929. Humaira Masihuddin gave a brief overview of the law. Dr Naeem Mushtaq explained the religious point of view on girls’ marriages and Mr Qadeer Baig also highlighted the need for amending the law.
The third session started with the real life stories of women victims of early marriages. They explained the problems they had faced due to getting married at such an early age.
Later, the political leaders from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Pakistan Muslim League-N and Awami National Party (ANP) shared their views on the issue and gave an assurance that they would take up this issue in the party meetings and their respective legislatures.
A resolution was passed which demanded that the minimum punishment should be increased to two years and a fine of at least Rs 100,000 must be applicable to all the parties involved in child marriage. The resolution also demanded that the discrimination between boys and girls should be abolished forthwith. The legal age for marriage for boys and girls should be 18 years.