The news hits hard. Fourteen children dead. A roof collapsing in a tuition centre in Pakistan. Another tragic reminder of a broken system.
It happened in the city of Peshawar. The building, a centre for religious and secular studies, housed a room full of children. Then the roof gave way. Rescue workers pulled bodies from the rubble. Parents wailed. The dead were young, between seven and ten years old.
Questions are already being asked. Safety standards. Building regulations. The usual promises of an inquiry. But for those families, it is cold comfort.
This is not an isolated incident. Pakistan has a grim history of building collapses. A lack of enforcement of safety codes. Corruption. Neglect. The poor bear the brunt.
There will be outrage. There will be calls for accountability. There will be a few arrests. Then the cycle will repeat. Until the system changes. Until someone is held responsible.
But for now, fourteen families are grieving. In a small corner of Pakistan, the future has collapsed. And the rest of us can only watch.
