Departments needed to stop working in silos
As Eid-ul-Azha approaches, the administrators of Kot Addu in Muzaffargarh district gathered not for ceremony but for the quiet, essential labor of governance — mapping cattle markets, waste routes, and police deployments so that a festival of communal joy does not become a test of public order. Deputy Commissioner Barrister Bilal Saleem's convening of the District Peace Committee reflects a recurring truth: that celebration on a large scale requires invisible scaffolding, built in advance by people whose names rarely appear in the stories of the day. Alongside these preparations, an open-court initiative invites citizens to bring their grievances directly to police offices, suggesting an administration that understands legitimacy must be earned on two fronts — by preventing disorder and by remaining answerable to those it serves.
- The convergence of crowds, livestock, and sacrificial waste during Eid-ul-Azha creates a narrow window in which celebration can slide into public health crisis or civil disorder if coordination fails.
- Deputy Commissioner Bilal Saleem issued a direct warning against departmental silos, signaling that fragmented governance has been a real vulnerability in past festival seasons.
- Additional police personnel are being positioned at cattle markets, sensitive locations, and major highways — a deployment designed to absorb the festival's surge before it becomes unmanageable.
- A provincial directive from Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has introduced daily open-court sessions at police offices, giving citizens a structured path to raise complaints and receive on-the-spot directives.
- The district is now operating on two simultaneous tracks: proactive prevention through inter-departmental security planning, and reactive accountability through visible public grievance redressal.
On a Tuesday morning in Kot Addu, Deputy Commissioner Barrister Bilal Saleem called the District Peace Committee to order. The subject was Eid-ul-Azha — and the meeting's agenda was deliberately unglamorous. Cattle market management, waste disposal timelines, traffic flow, police positioning: the thousand small decisions that determine whether a mass public festival passes safely or unravels into disorder.
Saleem's message to the assembled officials was unambiguous: inter-departmental coordination was not optional. Departments working in isolation had no place in the run-up to one of Pakistan's largest annual gatherings. District Police Officer Mansoor Qamar Mufti followed with a security briefing — additional officers assigned to sensitive sites, cattle markets, and the major highways crossing the district. The tone was professional and methodical. The goal was prevention, not response.
Running parallel to these preparations was a separate initiative with a different character. Under a directive from Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, DPO Syed Ghazanfar Ali Shah had begun holding daily open-court sessions at the police office. Citizens could arrive with complaints and receive a hearing — and a directive with a deadline — on the spot. The intent was to make accountability visible and access real.
Together, the two efforts sketched a portrait of a district administration working on two frequencies: one aimed at absorbing the predictable pressures of a major festival before they became crises, the other aimed at remaining answerable to citizens in the quieter intervals between them. The meeting closed with a prayer for the country's security — a small ritual acknowledgment of the weight carried by the work.
In Kot Addu, a town in Muzaffargarh district, the machinery of local governance shifted into high gear on a Tuesday morning. Deputy Commissioner Barrister Bilal Saleem convened the District Peace Committee to walk through the logistics of Eid-ul-Azha—the festival of sacrifice that draws millions across Pakistan into streets, markets, and gathering places. The room held the district's security apparatus: the police chief, administrative officers, and committee members tasked with keeping the peace.
The agenda was granular and unglamorous. How to manage the crush of cattle markets without incident. Where to position extra police. How to move sacrificial waste out of neighborhoods before it became a public health problem. Traffic flow. Sanitation. The thousand small decisions that separate a festival from a catastrophe. Saleem's directive was clear: departments needed to stop working in silos. Coordination was not optional. The goal was straightforward—a secure, clean Eid for the district's residents.
District Police Officer Mansoor Qamar Mufti laid out the security posture. Additional officers would be stationed at sensitive locations, cattle markets, and the major highways threading through the district during the festival period. The police had been finalizing these measures for weeks. The briefing was methodical, the tone professional. This was not theater; it was the work of preventing disorder before it started.
What emerged from the meeting was a picture of administration attempting to manage a predictable surge in public activity and potential risk. Eid-ul-Azha brings opportunity for celebration but also concentrates people, animals, and waste in ways that require deliberate planning. The committee's work—unglamorous as it was—aimed to absorb that concentration without letting it tip into chaos or filth.
Parallel to these security preparations, the district police were experimenting with a different kind of public engagement. Under a provincial directive from Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif, DPO Syed Ghazanfar Ali Shah had begun holding daily open court sessions at the police office. Citizens could walk in with complaints. Officers would hear them out and issue directives on the spot, with timelines attached. The idea was simple: make the police answerable, make grievance redressal visible, make access real rather than theoretical.
These two initiatives—the behind-the-scenes coordination for Eid security and the public-facing open courts—reflected a district administration trying to operate on two frequencies at once. One was about preventing problems. The other was about responding to them when citizens brought them forward. Neither was revolutionary. Both suggested an administration conscious that legitimacy required both competence and accessibility. The meeting concluded with a prayer for the country's security and stability, a ritual gesture that acknowledged the weight of the work ahead.
Citações Notáveis
All concerned departments must strengthen mutual coordination and perform their duties efficiently to ensure a peaceful, clean, and secure environment during Eid-ul-Azha— Deputy Commissioner Barrister Bilal Saleem
Practical measures are being taken to guarantee easy public access to police authorities and timely resolution of citizens' problems in an efficient and transparent manner— DPO Syed Ghazanfar Ali Shah
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does a festival require this level of administrative coordination? Isn't Eid something people have celebrated for centuries?
They have, but not in a city of this size, with this density of cattle markets and traffic. The festival itself is ancient. The logistics problem is modern. You're moving thousands of animals through neighborhoods, managing waste, preventing stampedes at markets. That's new.
So the peace committee is really about public health and traffic, not peace in the traditional sense?
It's both. Peace and order are the same thing at this scale. A backed-up highway becomes a flashpoint. A poorly managed market becomes dangerous. The committee prevents the small failures that cascade into larger ones.
What about the open court sessions? That seems like a different problem entirely.
It is, but it's connected. If people trust the police to hear them, they're less likely to take grievances into their own hands. The administration is trying to build legitimacy through accessibility, not just through security.
Do you think it works?
That depends on whether the directives issued in those open courts actually get followed. Visibility is one thing. Accountability is another. The real test comes after the session ends.