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).
For those of us not sitting in Pakistan, we can’t get the daily papers. My source of NEWS is the internet and GEO. BBC website definitely has done a better job than The News website. DAWN (internet) has been relatively better than the NEWS. It is very easy to twist the facts to say whatever you want to say. If media does not report the facts correctly, then you would be totally confused as to who perpetrated what, and who is responsible. For an outside audience watching PTV only (and if that was your only source of info), it would be impossible to form an opinion, as things are taken out of context. Also if you listen to the statements of the 2 parties involved, they sound the same, and the true story easily gets lost in the rhetoric.
[quote comment=”47057″]Frankly, I think some of the discussion about News etc. is silly… or you think you can just pressure and intimidate it by these silly comments.
The web page really doesn’t matter and the breaking news there is not by importance it is in the order of which news is received when. Second, if you look at the real newspaper today and the main news items at the top of the page it is clear that the newspaper is doing good and bold reporting and clearly focussed on the killings and clearly blaming the sitting Sindh govt of MQM for it. The problem with you ‘keyboard pundits’ is that you cant even take the trouble of looking at the real newspaper and just need something to rant about. The danger is that you will even lose the respect of those journalists who are doing something real in this battle for democracy.[/quote]
I have been reading The News since its inception and it has always taken sides. First with Benazir during the reign of Dr. Maleeha Lodhi and then with Musharraf. It was never a neutral newspaper.
[quote comment=”47092″]if i was in CJ’s shoes i would have resigned… it is purely because him the violence accoured. he is only tryin to politicize is cause and gain popularity to hide his real deeds…. he can go back to where he belongs and is not welcome in karachi![/quote]
What a stupid comment!
if i was in CJ’s shoes i would have resigned… it is purely because him the violence accoured. he is only tryin to politicize is cause and gain popularity to hide his real deeds…. he can go back to where he belongs and is not welcome in karachi!
MQM IS THE RESPONSIBLE OF ALL THAT.NOW MQM,S JIN OUT OF BOTTLE, AND I MUST SAY THAT IT WOULD BE BETTER THAT IN 1992 GOVT. WOULD REMOVE ALL MQM AT THAT PERIOD.MQM IS A GROUP OF SCOUNDREL PERSONS,THEY LOOK ONLY MONEY AND CAN DO EVERYTHING AGAINST PAKISTAN,AND THEY DID AT KARACHI YERSTERDAY.MUSHARRAF WAS THEIR COLABORATOR.