Adil Najam
Pictures on the television show Karachi burning. The city is at war. Morchas everywhere. Clashes, violence, firing, deaths.
The Chief Justice is holed up at the airport and the streets are ruled by mobs. Aaj TV is being fired at and Talat Hussain reports that the police and rangers are unable to get their to help because the roads are blocked (to stop the Chief Justice). Of course, these road blocks have not stopped the killers who are firing at the TV station. As of now 15 are reported dead. Over 100 seriously injured. Hospitals in Karachi have declared an emergency. The Prime Minister has called an emergency meeting of his own to respond to what the government is calling a ‘security situation’ but which sounds, smells, looks and feels like the beginning of a war on the streets of Karachi. Flights in and out of the city are stalled. Train traffic is stopped. The city seems to have descended back to its darkest days of street violence.
Meanwhile, the petty blame game continues. But things are changing too fast for one to analyze them. But one thing is certain. Things have gone out of control. Totally out of control. Totally out of everyone’s control. It is a sad sad day for all of us.
I wish I had something more profound to say. All I can hink of right now is what someone wrote on our comments section recently: Khuda Khair Karray!
(Picture credits BBC and The News and pictorial story at Bilal Zuberi’s blog; great blog coverage at Karachi Metroblog).
[quote comment=”46992″]In all honesty, ask how many shareef Karachiites actually went outside to support one party or the other? Our sharaafat stayed at home, in purdah.[/quote]
Honestly, I still can’t say for sure which side i am on.
MQM massacred us today, Musharraf gave no heed to humanity in Karachi today (still isn’t declaring a state of emergency).
THE CJ case is suspicious, he was also badly treated, pulled into custody from his hair. Police stood by, watched. But as someone pointed out, if they had interfered, more bloodshed would have been seen.
But having said that, Opposition parties are not angels either. We have seen how anti-Bugti groups suddenly became so sympathetic on his death (or murder whatever) that do favor Musharaf’s pov that let the Judiciary decide Ifti’s case. But then again, I am not so sure, Mushy is telling me the truth…
Pakistan is a lonely place.
Does Pakistan history has a greater than normal tendency to repeat itself??
“In October 1968, during lavish celebrations to commemorate the ten years of dictatorship as a ‘decade of development’, students in Rawalpindi demanded the restoration of democracy; soon Student Action Committees had spread across the country. The state responded with its usual brutality. There were mass arrests and orders to ‘kill rioters’. Several students died during the first few weeks. In the two months that followed workers, lawyers, small shopkeepers, prostitutes and government clerks joined the protests. Stray dogs with ‘Ayub’ painted on their backs became a special target for armed cops. In March 1969 Ayub passed control of the country to the whisky-soaked General Yahya Khan.”
Taken from “The General in his Labyrinth” by Tariq Ali
The solution is to dissolve the provincial government, ASAP.
Please read an article on MQM from following link
http://kashifhafeez.com/mazameen_large.php?path=20 07-05-10&img=kh_articles/large/2007-05-10.gif
Karachi is a city of paradoxes, a city with a troubled history and decades of deprived resources. I cannot speak for the millions who continue to support MQM, but it is not that difficult to see how the city has still not recovered its political consciousness from the days of Ayub Khan when its political honesty was in many ways crushed by the goons. Since then it has merely been a tamaasha, where people vote not for the political issues but for the slogans. Politicians in Karachi, I feel, don’t speak any more about what they stand for. Instead, they use scare tactics to promote what they are against – be it a particular form of religion or ethnicity…
Today when I called up friends and family in Karachi I heard something surprising. They were lued to their TV screens watching AAJ and GEO TV. They all knew that MQM was behind much of the mess, the killings, and the fear that gripped AAJ TV employees as they stood ground unprotected by any security forces – but they still could not bring themselves to putting all blame on this organized crime mafia now hiding under the guise of a political organization, that single handedly tried to hijack the city for a day. Instead, I heard them complaining about the CJ and why he put the people of Karachi at risk by coming here at all. Why not postpone by one day and let MQM’s plans fall apart? I heard them say it was not Karachi that got hijacked, but the CJ who has himself been hijacked by those looking to regain power by creating anarchy in the society. They questioned how and why did the CJ supporters carry weapons and shoot back if all they wanted was a peaceful rally?
Gosh…it is indeed reminding of what I heard about the civil war in Beirut. One bullet is fired and then nobody knows who is on whose side. Every political confrontation devolves into a gang-fight and people wanting a political change stay at home to watch the massacre in their city. In all honesty, ask how many shareef Karachiites actually went outside to support one party or the other? Our sharaafat stayed at home, in purdah.