Adil Najam
Today is May 12.
Today marks the first anniversary of the carnage in Karachi.
Today is the day when the resolution on the restoration of the Supreme Court judges was to be presented in Parliament.
Ominously, even eerily, today also marks the 15th death anniversary of the Pakistan’s pre-eminent poet of political protest, Habib Jalib.
May 12 will forever be a date in infamy because of what happened on this date a year ago. A year ago today, I was in Pakistan. Karachi was burning and I wrote: “The city is at war. Morchas everywhere. Clashes, violence, firing, deaths... Khuda khair karey.” What were your thoughts then? What are your thoughts on it now?
Distasteful as it may seem, let me repeat just some of the pictures that were on our front page a year ago. I do so to remind myself, and you, of exactly what it was that we must never, ever, let happen again.
Just as we were doing a year ago, we are again wondering about the fate of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry today. But also at stake today are the democratic gains that have been made between last year and now. Gains that have given hope to so many of us. Gains that must not be lost. But, nor should we lose the struggle for judicial independence.
If newspaper headlines are to be believed then the PPP-PML coalition is also disintegrating and possibly on the verge of breakup (in our Poll, our readers seem to think not just yet).
I hope all of this is being overblown, but a look at the front page of The News suggests that the nation is in despair as the PPP-PML talks falter, that there is renewed pressure on the media including a Supreme Court notice, and the US deal-makers are again having secret meetings to “manage” Pakistan.
I am not a superstitious person. But all of the above gives me the shudder. Khuda khair karey.
@Rafay Kashmiri
“….MQM’s desperate attempt will come out
one way or the other, MQM must be dealt with on
Federal level, the terrorism’s potential must be….”
a small question: From the 46 dead in Karachi last year on May 12th, 25 were MQM activists. Who killed them?
Pictures are chilling reminder that dead bodies are the fuel for politics. The more dead bodies the more popular a political party. Nothing will change in this country we will remain ensalved. Our leaders will do their politics in Dubai & London under the directive of USA. The people of this country will not learn they continue to think that a day will come when a miracle happen and everything will be all right. We continue to fight on ethnic & sectarian issues. We call our dead by the language they speak.
The media will remian as negative as it is, the lawyers will never tell from where they are getting so much money to run the movement.
In guess congrats on your analysis here and in the quiz you seemed to know was was coming and anticipated it.
A tribute to the Shaheeds of May 12
The nation will mourn your sacrifice forever
You served the nation in life and in death
Your blood will never go to waste
Your candle will flicker on and on
Pakistan salutes you O sons of the soil
Pakistan salutes your sacrifice, rest in eternal peace
Pakistan Zindabad
Feimanallah Pakistan
Wasim
http://www.otherpakistan.org/archive.html
May Allah give patience to the families of martyrs and lessen their grief.Amen.
Instead of objecting to the pictures, why not object to the acts of killing and murder. Then no one will have to put these pictures. And not having the pictures will not change the reality of the brutality and inhuman behavior that was demonstrated in Karachi last year on this day.
@But the potential is always there to appear any
time in the broad day light and its MQM
as usual.
MQM’s desperate attempt will come out
one way or the other, MQM must be dealt with on
Federal level, the terrorism’s potential must be
marginalized. PPP might enter into a sort of alliance.
I think it is already on its way.
Mohammad Qasim & Feroz Waseem
You can protest on the pictures. I protest on allowing the most terrorist party of Pakistan MQM to be allowed to field their candidates in elections. They must first apologize to whole country for their terrorist activities, commit that they shall not do these things again and only then should they be allowed to even register their party.