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).
I just want to say that you guys at PAKISTANIAT are doing a great job by giving us this space of expression and by being fair and open.
Please take care of yourself in these difficult times.
The killing of teh deputy registrar yesterday was clearly an attempt to threaten those supporting the CJ. Sending message to journalists and lawyers that anyone supporting the CJ even mildly could be targetted.
Asfandyar wali whom and whose politics I have never been fond of said it right that where should they go for justice when murderers are wearing gloves and playing the victim. About media giving limited coverage, people need to know the tacit power of mqm. No party in pakistan is good at crushing the opponents in a blood bath like mqm can. To the extent that in early 90s I personally met their “unit and sector in charge” men who were running from their cities claiming that mqm was killing its own low level office holders to get headlines in the papers. Some of them ran from their houses in hyderabad and karachi with just the clothes they were wearing in the middle of the day to live. And they were die hard mqm workers. Sometimes its hard to believe that a simple ISI idea to create a mullah (JI to be specific) neutralizing party in urban sindh (karachi, hyderabad, sukhur and mirpurkhas) in the mid 80s can go this far.
MQM had the right to exist and be the voice of people who needed it, not be the voice of bullets , violence, force, juvenile motor bikers shooting AK47 everywhere.
Now MQM just like PML(N) is so much in control of the government. two down a few more to go…!
[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]
Who are you to decide who is and who is not welcome in Karachi? You and your disgusting political party does not own the city, never will!
violence occurred only in Karachi because this is the only place where u and ur goons had power and u never shied in misusing it.
violence occurred only in Karachi because u and ur goons wanted to disrupt CJ’s visit any day of the year he would have planned to make.
Whether the CJ is a man of good or bad deeds is totally out of the current crisis now, its about misusing your disgusting powers and creating chaos in our city.
Even if he was politicizing the case, the government and MQM has no right to stop them by law, nor create obstacles in their trips.
[quote comment=”46896″]While I didn’t hope more sensible reaction from the current regime on the issue of security what I am truly appalled is by the complacency (or dheet pan) of Karachiites and their utterly irrational refusal to accept change in their lives by allowing a truly ignorant and goddamn vagabond aka Altaf hussain’s ghundas roam at their will and damage the very fabric of social, civic and economic lives of this city which boasts the highest generating revenue compared with the whole country.
I am saddened by the realization of Karachiites’ dilemma: Urdu speaking have no other voice but Altaf Hussain so let’s stick to him (however bad he might be).
As for the police and government, it was predictable and shameful behavior nonetheless. However, had there been no friggin’ MQM, the city could have been more at peace. I wonder despite the many great things about this city, what is the average IQ of an average Karachiite. I mean, for god’s sake, this is your very own friggin’ city. Governments will come, and governments will fall. But what legacy as a civil society do WE leave behind us?
The moral fibre of this society has weakened to such a state that I could have no possible hope from any area but from those who remain silent and yet are capable of a lot more than what they think of themselves.[/quote]
With your above average IQ, would you say, that if there were no frigging (to use your choice of language) Jamaat Islami, there would be no fr– MQM, if there were no fr–PPP, there were no MQM and so on and so forth. Are you ready to ponder just a wee bit, that the first bullets were fired at the MQM rally near the Wireless gate. I know for a fact, that after routing the Jamaat in Karachi, MQM is making inroads in rural Sindh. Are you willing to consider, just for the sake of argument, that the PPP fears losing its stranglehold in Sindh and found an ideal opportunity on the 12th to strike back. My view is MQM made a misjudgement when it decided to hold its rally (on the advise of Islamabad) the day the Chief Justice was coming.