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).
and the editorial
Unanswered questions
With the death toll now 36 and still rising, hundreds injured and extensive property damage instigated by organized groups of armed men, the blame game has already begun. The opposition and the lawyers’ groups are accusing the government of deliberately unleashing the violence to undermine their movement. The government and MQM have pointed their fingers at the opposition, the lawyers and the chief justice for provoking the unfortunate events by not heeding their calls to stay away. On Sunday evening, the contrast between the huge government rally and the distressing scenes across much of Karachi with a stream of dead bodies arriving at hospitals couldn’t be starker. President Musharraf and MQM chief Altaf Hussain both blamed the chief justice and the opposition parties for the violence. The president, yet again, asked lawyers not to turn what he said was a purely constitutional matter into a political campaign, perhaps not realizing that he and his government had in fact set the ball rolling and had compounded matters by answering the opposition’s politics with politics of their own.
As for the MQM chief, he was more forthright in his speech at his party’s rally saying that his party would support the chief justice if he first resigned from his post and then entered the political arena. The Sindh government’s home affairs advisor, under whose jurisdiction comes the provincial police, also blamed the chief justice for coming to Karachi and provoking the violence. Certain uncharitable remarks were also made against the chief justice implying that while Karachi was burning he was comfortably ensconced inside the VIP lounge of the airport. However, this ignores the fact that he was very much willing to travel to the high court bar to deliver his address but that the provincial government was clearly unable to guarantee his safety. Furthermore, to blame Justice Chaudhry’s visit and his failure to heed the federal government’s ‘advice’ not to travel to Karachi for the violence in the city is an indirect admission by Islamabad that whatever happened on Saturday was either pre-planned to begin with or that control over the city’s law and order was beyond the writ of the state. After all, the city is big enough to accommodate at least two rallies in a way that their paths do not cross and that confrontation is kept to a minimum. This did not happen but what took place that day let ultimately to a bloodbath.
The weekend’s deadly events, which reminded one of Karachi’s bloody days in the early nineties, raise several questions and answers are needed. Why did the police and the Rangers fail to take action to prevent the carnage? Who ordered the barricading of the city’s main artery and several other roads and for what purpose? Who were the heavily armed groups of armed men wandering about boisterously around the city on that fateful day? What was achieved by preventing the chief justice’s reception at the Sindh High Court bar? Is there any truth in the MQM’s claim that the opposition is out to destabilize the city as part of a sinister conspiracy? Do the federal and Sindh governments think that what happened on Saturday was in the interest of the country, especially considering that the centre considers Karachi to be the lynchpin of its claimed economic turnaround and ongoing recovery?
And finally, what message is given to ordinary Pakistanis, the outside world and those behind the violence when the state chooses to abdicate from its duty to provide security to its citizens in as blatant a manner as seen over the weekend? All this reflects poorly on the government of the day – but instead of admitting that matters were badly handled one finds all the blame is being deflected elsewhere. As a spiral of violence threatens to engulf the city once again, it is time for cool-headed introspection from all those behind the terrible events of that bloody Saturday.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id= 7829
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5582 1
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id= 7825
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id= 7828
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id= 7824
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5579 0
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5578 9
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5578 7
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5578 6
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5582 2
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5580 1
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5580 0
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5579 9
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5579 7
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5579 5
eidee and observer — what website have you been reading — today’s May 14’s has several stories on the violence — most of them not favourable to the MQM or the govt — open your eyes — or maybe you dont want to see
Check out the following — all from May 14
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5583 5
http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id= 7815
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5580 4
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=5580 2