Adil Najam
UPDATE: Reports in the Pakistan media suggest that the Lal Masjid leader has finally been arrested while trying to escape wearing a burqa. According to a BBC update:
The leader of a radical mosque besieged by Pakistani security forces in Islamabad has been caught trying to escape wearing a woman’s burqa. Security forces seized Abdul Aziz as he tried to leave the Red Mosque amid a crowd of women… He was wearing a burqa that also covered his eyes,” a security official told the AFP news agency about the cleric’s escape bid. “Our men spotted his unusual demeanour. The rest of the girls looked like girls, but he was taller and had a pot belly.“
ORIGINAL POST: Things are moving fast and the showdown at Lal Masjid, Islamabad that began this morning is now ready to turn into an even more real battle. The day took the lives of at least 10 people, possibly more. These included policemen, soldiers, by-standers, a journalist, and a number of Madrassah students. (For details see our earlier post and update comments on it, here).
The latest - and this keeps changing by the minute - is that in a mid-night press conference the government has given an ultimatum to the management of the Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) to surrender. There is no indication that they will. In the past things have always ended with ‘negotiated settlements.’ This time the likelihood of this happening is much less. A curfew has been imposed in the area. Tanks have been called in. So have special forces.
Metroblog Islamabad is doing a wonderful job of keeping abreast with breaking news. It reports, through Dawn TV, that 111 Brigade (Army) from Rawalpindi has already assembled around the mosque. Ambulances have been fully stocked. Hospitals are on alert. An ultimatum for time has been given (3.30 PST… NOW!). The entire area has been cordoned off.
Here is a news clip from ARYOne, broadcast earlier.
In an article written last week for The News, I had argued that inaction was not a solution and because of so many delays and policies of apeasement some confrontation was now becoming inevitable.
This episode [i.e., the Chinese massage parlor case] will further embolden the already violence-prone brigands at the two madressahs and we are likely to see an escalation in their demands as well as their tactics. Meanwhile, the government has once again demonstrated an inability and/or unwillingness to act decisively. The much-cherished ‘writ of the state’ continues to rot in tatters.
This, it seems, is what happened when earlier the Lal Masjid management incited this escalation in response to the government’s build-up of force around the mosque. In that article, I had gone on to argue that:
Just like standing still in the middle of the road at the sight of the blinding lights of a truck speeding towards it does not save the life of the stunned deer, doing nothing about this escalating crisis out of fear that doing anything will only make things worse is not going to help the government, or Pakistan. Something needs to be done, and done fast.
I had called in the article for the government to “act to judiciously dismantle militancy at Lal Masjid.” This situation has to be responded to. But the key word remains “act judiciously.” What is really important is how that action is taken. Further bloodshed should be avoided. At least minimized. One hopes that any action is intelligent action and all steps are taken to minimize loss of life. Not just because one does not wish to create needless ‘martyrs.’ Much more so because all life - and everyone’s life - is precious.
The technologies to undertake low casualty offensives are available. The will and sagacity to do so is needed. The test for the government - acting with force in the very center of the Federal Capital - is not only what it does, but how it does it.
Photo credit: Associated Press, B.K. Bangash.
Although its sad but right step has been taken.
mulana was not runing out of the masjid /he was going out for meeting with a leader at his will.the future will show what was right and what is wrong.our nation is advancing towards a deadly detrioration.we have to stop it.the blood ,tears and prayers of innocent mujahids will not go astray.the mujahids which arose just to stop the flood of immodesty
Please vote for the future of Pakistan,
http://votepower.blogspot.com
Be loyal to your country.
Thanks.
There is nothing bad about taking aggressive steps agianst people who are bent on destabilizing the the country.what we don’t like is the idea of doing so under external pressure.
Waheed
I agree, nobody should be above the law, may it be maulvi’s (using brute force), MQM (massacre of may 12th in Karachi) or the Army (abducting Pakistani citizens without bringing them to trial and selling them at $10,000 a head for GITMO).
When justice is not equal, this will result.
No terrorist should be spared. Anyone who abducts civilians and kills law enforcement officials deserves to be dealt with stringently. Musharaf has given a clear message that no madrassa wil be allowed to get out of its bound and use force. If he had not done so every madrassa in the country would have followed lal masjid example.
It’s funny that some people think Maulans are above the law as well as shariat. Why is that? Isn’t this the core problem that Maulanas want to enforce themselves over others beyond the extent allowed by religion?
This was in Today’s Jang:
http://kadnan.googlepages.com/lal_quran.gif
orignal link:
——————
tinyurl.com/2ndx5f
Now when after reading this if I call secularism a branch of aethism then people like MQ gets irked as they feel that I am calling spade a shovel or getting emotional while I just state facts. Offcourse only muslims would get emotional by reading this rather some other community.
You guys would also read that seculars got defeated in a secular country(Turkey). Now instead of implementing in Pakistan, seculars should worry about their vatican and try to save secularism there first then worry about Pakistan.
MILITARY QABZA GROUP;
For our tinpots (Corps Commanders) to make such a big deal out of lal Masjid mullah qabza on the library, it is interesting to read below how the very same mujahids play this game;
Shoot the messenger
By Ardeshir Cowasjee
SURVEYING President General Pervez Musharraf’s chosen chief minister of Sindh, Arbab Rahim, takes one back to the old days of Paul Muni and Scarface, and Sidney Greenstreet and Guttman — those sinister master players on the silver screen. If Arbab does not like a law, he tries to change it, irrespective of whether it is right or not, possible or not possible.
This applies, inter alia, to the manner in which an upcoming commercial high-rise project on Karachi’s Wall Street, the now diligently dug up and impassible I I Chundrigar Road, is being orchestrated by the largest industrial empire of our country, ‘Milbus’ — to use the word coined by Ayesha Siddiqa to refer to “military capital used for the personal benefit of the military fraternity�. To be known grandly as Karachi Financial Towers, this complex can only exploit the rapidly deteriorating built-up environment of the city and add to the urban chaos.
A totally illegal land-use conversion has been masterminded by a subsidiary of the Pakistan Army, the National Logistics Cell (NLC), which has carved out from the Pakistan Railways (PR) Marshalling Yard at City Station Chundrigar Road a two and a half acre plot on which will be constructed a 43-storey twin towers, Karachi Financial Towers. NLC’s partner in this grand venture is Enshaa Holdings of Dubai, known to the environmentalist world as global experts when it comes to the over-exploitation of the ecology.
Two wrongs have been committed — the first is the misappropriation of the plot; and the second is the pressure exerted by Quarter Master General of the Pakistan Army on the chief minister of Sindh, his surrender and subsequent sanction of a building twice the size normally allowed to be constructed on a commercial plot in the Railway Quarter on Chundrigar Road.
Railway land originally belonged to the Sindh government and was given to Pakistan Railways specifically for ‘public purpose,’ that is, a railway service. Such land is amenity land and cannot under law be used or leased for other non-conforming purposes.
Under the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations 2002 many aspects of the project such as sub-division, land development, commercialisation and deviation from a notified scheme, require a ’special development permit’ involving a public notice and consideration of public comments/objections. In the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations, Chundrigar Road is a notified ‘Interim Control Area’, so declared “to prevent haphazard and unplanned development in areas lacking adequate: (a) water supply, sewerage, or drainage facilities; (b) utilities; electricity, gas, telephone; (c) health, educational or other municipal services or facilities; (d) road networks and public transportâ€?.
On March 2 2006, the chief minister’s secretary, Ayub Sheikh, very wisely and properly wrote to Chief Secretary Shakil Durrani on the subject of the “Construction of Karachi Financial Tower — Floor Area Ratio Review Committee (FAR) :
“I am directed to refer to discussion of QMG Lt. General Afzal Muzaffar on the subject matter with the chief minister, Sindh. The QMG informed the chief minister that NLC, a subsidiary of Pak army, in collaboration with a foreign company wants to construct Karachi Financial Towers on the land purchased from Government of Sindh/Pakistan Railways through auction on Chundrigar Road, Karachi. The NLC had already requested to enhance the FAR up to 1:12 for construction of a building.
The chief minister, Sindh, observed that the present ratio as per KBTPR is ranging from 1:3 to 1:6 as informed. Since that change in the ratio involves amendment in the KBCA town planning regulations, besides having environmental impact. The availability of infrastructure and other long-ranging implications are also to be assessed.
“It was thus decided that a committee may be constituted to look into the matter as a whole and formulate recommendation. The committee should also deliberate on zoning of Karachi with reference to FAR in various zones of Karachi.�
Accordingly, the chief minister of Sindh constituted a 14-member committee comprising bureaucrats, members of relevant professional bodies — architects and engineers of our premier statutory institutions — and representatives of our utility corporations.
A meeting of the committee was held on March 8, 2007, and a sub-Committee was constituted. The highlights of its recommendations, as communicated on March 16, 2007, by the Chairman of Pakistan Council of Architects and Town Planners, Architect Shahab Ghani : “I would also like to mention here the unanimous desire of all the members of the sub-committee to commend the chief minister of Sindh. and yourself in particular for your insistence in referring this matter to the relevant professional bodies and institutions of the city representing the citizens of Karachi, to obtain directions for your subsequent action. This is in the finest traditions of democracy, and the truest spirit of public service. . . .
“The first meeting of the committee was held on March 08, 2007. Views of all the participants were obtained on the matter and, after detailed discussions, all participants were unanimous that no such change could be considered for one project in isolation, and should be applicable to the entire zone. After further deliberation, it was agreed that a sub-committee comprising professionals representing architects, planners, engineers and builders make their recommendations within one week after thoroughly examining the case. . . .�.
The sub- committee met on March 10 and March 14, 2007. It was agreed at the outset that any recommendations made should be based on the premise that laws and regulations are made for the good of the majority of citizens and for the healthy future of our city, and that the development of the city must be encouraged but should be according to a master plan and be sustainable.
After extensive debate and analyses, the committee came up with its recommendations, inter alia, that a serious need exists to study the urban design aspects of the existing business district so as to prevent the complete collapse of urban infrastructure, that a traffic plan is a ‘must’, that the proposal is in direct conflict with, and diametrically opposed to, the aspirations of the Karachi Master Plan 2020 towards de-centralization and polycentric future development, and, most importantly, that land use should be changed only after proper review by public hearings and the current floor area ratio must not be increased.
Now a word on the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) : This is a planning tool that defines the allowable size, or bulk, of a building. The bulk of a building determines the size of the resident population and consequently the load imposed on the area utilities and infrastructure. It defines the amount of electricity and water consumed, the sewage and garbage output, the traffic generated, the number of parks, playgrounds, schools, hospitals and other civic amenities and facilities required.
When our corrupt and inept politicians and their loyal bureaucrats assume the role of town planners and arbitrarily convert plots from one notified use to another, or allow arbitrary increases in the Floor Area Ratio, or ‘legislate’ the commercialisation of roads, etc, chaos ensues. Unplanned and not-provided-for increases in population in a well laid out scheme ushers in a creeping deterioration in the built environment — a road designed for 500 residents is made to house 5,000, and so forth. Electricity and water supplies break down, sewers and garbage overflow, traffic jams and urban decay results.
In the case of the military, Karachi Financial Towers, now that the premier professional bodies of construction professionals in the country and even that much-maligned builders’ association, ABAD, have strongly spoken out against the arbitrary/ad hoc and environmentally-damaging increase in FAR, giving cogent reasons and an elaborate analysis of the consequences, what has happened?
Chief Minister Arbab ‘Billboards-fell-by-divine-wrath’ Rahim, against all professional counsel and to please his boss and his powerful cronies, has used his ‘discretionary powers’ to allow the doubling of the size of a commercial building on an amenity railway space that his Sindh government has, for many years, refused to permit Pakistan Railways to lease.
Similar short-sighted and lucrative measures have been taken over the years to facilitate all types of mafias, and have now become a standard practice — one hundred wrongs now equal one right. The built-up environment of Karachi is being decimated by arbitrary and unplanned increases of notified FARs allowed by government professionals and officials who should know better, by a ‘commercialisation of roads’ policy of a city council desperate to generate funds, and by a builders-inspired ‘regularisation of illegal buildings’ policy decreed by our greedy so-called ‘leaders’.
The former chief secretary of this province, Shakil Durrani, tried to tell his chief minister that he cannot arbitrarily change and fiddle around with an FAR. Arbab Rahim was quick on the draw, and Shakil was shot out.
Engineer Roland de Souza of the NGO Shehri has written in great detail in our press earlier this month on this impending disaster which will hit us. Due credit must be given to him for his research and for his untiring efforts to save Karachi from utter ruin.