140 dead and 538 injured – this little byline cuts through hearts and our future!
Yesterday was the day of images – moving pictures of excitement, energy, applause and then the saddest of recent tragedies. Innocent men and women charged with emotion and enthusiasm were blown away by suicide bombers, remote devices and alien belief systems. Or was it the case of wilful machinations and deceit. Only time will tell.
She had arrived much like the Greek characters – tearful, maligned, triumphant and a little pawn in the hands of gods. Amid the voices of criticism and hypocrisy that fail to note the complexity of our times, she emerged as a people’s woman – once again. Here were the loyalists dancing, singing and clapping – their queen, exiled and beaten had re-emerged.
They couldn’t care about the cost or the process. That was for the armchair classes of Pakistan to ponder about. The pull of Bhutto-name for the have-nots was once again re-established. So began a journey on the blood-lined roads of Karachi that have cracked with violence, blood and lawlessness. Yet they moved ahead oblivious of the fault lines that run from the drab, destroyed villages of Afghanistan to Karachi passing through a web of seminaries, officialdom and Lal Masjids of this world.
And so halfway, this peaceful journey – a testament of what the real Pakistan is all about – halted. And, something had erupted: imperial projects, state diktats and the crumbling centre. There was flesh, blood, fire and tears. And the wretched TV screens have documented all of this.
Devastating is one word that replaced amazing by the time we crossed the midnight in Pakistan! To quote Rumi here
A splinter is often
difficult to get out.
How much more difficult a thorn
in the heart! If everyone could find that thorn
in themselves, things would be
much more peaceful here!
There is a head now flashed on the screens – they can’t tell if it was a Jiyala or the suicide bomber. The TV channels are flashing bodies again and again – as before, discretion was thrown to winds and we have the singular honour of being a country where human limbs and guts of the dead are not just flashed but imposed on the senses until you are numb, exhausted and terrified. And, glorifying terror is the last thing we need.
Urooj Zia, a newspaper reporter was there:
“The bomb blasts happened while we were there. I was stunned, to say the least. There were people, bits of people, blood EVERYWHERE. An AryOne World cameraman lay there dying in front of us. We moved him to a police mobile, but he died in the hospital. I knew he would. I got his blood all over me — my hands, arms, clothes, shoes. Then there were charred bodies of policemen — smoke rising from them. Slippery blood everywhere….I went back to work after that, filed my story. Got home around 04:00 a.m., couldn’t sleep for two hours coz I couldn’t get the images out of my head. Puked a couple of times too.”
This tragedy is not just about who is responsible for this carnage. When humanity is in danger, we have to rise above our biases and loyalties and condemn what is WRONG. This is an issue that we all have to now live and deal with.
Our religion does not allow targeting women even in wartime and suicides are FORBIDDEN. Period. There is now a consensus at Al-Azhar and various other places of Islamic scholarship. If this is about Waziristan or the Lal Masjid then it should be fought elsewhere and not against the unarmed, dispossessed political workers.
All Pakistanis have to unite in condemning this barbarity. And all variants of Pakistaniat ought to be involved in this process – bickering at this stage will only make us question as to what message are we sending to the world, that we to quote Qandeel Shaam are “multiple little groups all bopping their heads against one another”?
Violence, militancy and suicide attacks are and will remain unacceptable. Legitimate politics must not give way to war-lord-ism! I end with Faiz:
abhii chiragh-e-sar-e-rah ko kuchh Khabar hii nahin
abhii garaani-e-shab mein kami nahin aaii
najaat-e-deeda-o-dil kii ghadi nahin aii
chale chalo key wo manzil abhii nahin aaii
Ye Baazi Khoon ki Baazi he
Ye baazi tum hi haro ge
Hur ghar se Bhutto Nikle ga
Tum Kitne Bhutto maaro ge!!!!
“This is the game of Blood [o Bosses] and [certainty in “Absence”] You will loose this game!! From every house a Bhutto will emerge [eternal return] . [Proletarian mockery] How many Bhuttos will you Kill???”.
It was the great French Philosopher Derrida , one of my icons, who gave a verdict “There is nothing out-side text”. Though English cant express what he said!
In front of me are various articles from European leftists on the events in Pakistan. A international Marxist Website mentions the above lines and i am taken aback!
The greatest betrayal , people of Pakistan saw was not from the hands of their Army, but rather it was from those who claimed to be “Leftists”. They betrayed the Text. For 6 months we saw the worse kind of media propaganda against Miss Bhutto and her party. i was stunned at the amount of distorsion , manipulation and blatant lack of Objectivity in analysing democracy and her position on it. Our leftist intelletuals have even forgotten the ABC of liberterian politics , they were on the forefront of this “Right wing agenda” to malign the largest political organization of Pakistan.
The most canonized and CLEAN [today best loved word of Paki middle class]Leftists of Pakistan Mr Asfand yar Khan Walli and Mr Mahmood Khan Achakzai are sitting in with Jamat e Islami and Taliban’s creators Fazul ur Rahman. The politics of “Pakhtoon , Revolution and secularism” for more than 100 years has been presented as a gift to Mullah Omar and President Karzai. Never have i seen greatest betrayal from socialists any where else. Rome[ read Pakhtoonkhawa] was burning and Asfand was dancing or “Praying” behind Fazal ur Rahman!!!!
why? because they have become Leftists of Urban Middle classes” . Their issues are “corruption”, “restoration of constitution” “Judiciary” , yea same Judiciary , that cant listen to a Habeas Corpus of Farooq Tariq , or Mr Akhtar Mangel , or any other pro people left wing revolutionary . A “liberated Chief Justice”, who cannt take a “Suomoto action” against genocide in Baluchistan , who would not take any Soumoto moto action against the cold blooded murder of Mr Akbar Bughti , though he comes from same province . But the great Chief Justice will go to “any extant” to “liberate” Al Qaida members, former ISI warriors of god!
He will come to rescue of Red Mosque terrorists. He will order rebuilding of “den of terrorism” in heart of Islamabad on “ILLEGALLY OCCUPIED LAND”. and our great left wing intellectuals will dance on with him , and JI and JUP , In search of “Democracy” and “Socialism” from “CAVE OF OSAMA BIN LADIN”.
This is “Democracy” without “People”.
The people , in millions came to streets to welcome Miss Bhutto , now our learned democratic activist will say “ignorant masses”.
This is defeat of APDM and a victory of Bhutto, why because Bhuttos know “ignorant masses” are the Pakistan. not 2% parasite class living in cities. She knows what are the “issues” of the people. This is bond of blood that she has with People of Pakistan, the real people. the cobblers, the landless, the hindus, the catholics, the ignorant, the being less , smelly Pakistanis that eat grass and drink poison . They know Why Bhutto was killed. They will die for lady of “100 castles in west” , because they are people. The proved that Human shield is more effective than any Jammer in the world. i saw them dying but not Leaving Benazir. These ignorant people know what Harvard educated Middle class intellectuals dont know. what is Democracy ?, what is the “People”. what are the issues and what is the “Media Matrix” that Noam Chomsky and Baudrillard talks about.
When the bodies reached Liyari the real Pakistan in Karachi , the mothers said , if we had more sons they will die for Benazir too. the faces of “great Journalists” of GEO , etc showed confusion at these remarks. “The ignorant cult”!!
The greatest tragedy of any nation is when “Middle class thought” becomes its dominant thought a great French Psychoanalyst and Philosopher once said. This is the tragedy of Pakistan. That great Socialist Dr Mubashir Hassan is in Supreme court of Pakistan , not for ending operation in Baluchistan, or for “restoration of human rights in Tribal areas”. Not for the release of “Baluch Revolutionaries”. Not for “seeking to repeal” Hadood Laws, the Evidence Laws, the Blasphemy laws, Not to seek help for Hindus of Sindh from hands of Arbab , not to prevent rapes of Hindu girls from his family. Not to get justice for Dr Shazia Murree who was raped by Army officers in Sui.
Our great clean socialist leader and thinker is in Supreme Court of Pakistan to “seek end of NRO” to stop “corruption”. To get Benazir arrested. Yea thats is most important issue of Pakistan!!!! of all the world at least a Marxist and Socialist should have known corruption is soul of capitalism.
But People slap , and they slapped hard on faces of such “socialists” and”intellectuals” and “great Media brains of Pakistan” [all right wing thugs ]. They died and payed the price for slapping the bosses. But Bosses have forgotten. Those who are murdered become “Ghosts”. Derrida talks again and again about “Ghost of Marx”.
Pakistan , its military , its parasite middle and upper classes, their allies the elitist liberals and Mullahs should worry of “Ghost of Bhutto”.
Time will come when Resurrection will take place , which Faiz Ahmad Faiz predicted.
Yahen utthe ga Shor e Mehshar
Yahen Hisab o Kitab ho ga
That Bomb as Benazir said was not blown by Taliban or Al Qaida , it was Not blown by them Even if the Suicide bomber was a member of Taliban . It was blown by those who didnt wanted Real People of Pakistan to Rule.
But as a student of Philosophy , i can tell what t Nietzsche calls “Eternal Return” and which Deleuze adds is “Return as New”. Ghosts retuns , in 1986 they were a Million, in 2007 they are 3 Million.
One Bhutto haunts , 150 Bhuttos will will kill n possess.
There is Nothing out side Text
Ye baazi Khoon ki Baazi he
Ye Baazi Tum hi haro ge
Hur ghar se Bhutto Nikle ga
Tum kitne Bhutto maaro ge??????
“A specter is haunting Europe——-
“150 specters are haunting Pakistan—–
Beanzir’s niece , Fatima Bhutto very aptly summed it up–She told Agence France -presse. ” that my aunt’s need for “personal theatre ” had resulted n the deaths of many Pakistanis”.
I wish Benazir was a citizen of a civilised democratic country where she would have been tried for murder for endangering the lives of so many innocents when she was repeatedly told that there were chances of suicide bombers disrupting her cavalcade. Despite all the warnings she choose to do the Tamasha at the cost of innocents.
Reminds me of an “Afsana” by Rubina Faisal of Toronto on her recent visit to Pakistan. ” Roti Khati Moortian” . all of us do eat and drink but we are still “Moortian “in the hands of these corrupt politicians who are now coming back to plunder us again in the name of democracy.
they are not champions of demoracy– Aung San Su Ki of Burma is … She has spent the last 21 years of her life in home detenton in Rangoon, not running away to live in their palaces abroad.
Please don’t be fooled by their theatrics– they are the same people who ran away leaving us at the mercy of Generals and are now coming back and shaking hands with the same generals — Remember this is the same army which killed her father, but she would do anything to get a chance to plunder us again….
This blog is blocked now,
150 PPP militants were massacred and given to
progressivist Balidan to Kali, what value for human
life, will be forgotten very very soon.
Excellent Post! What a tragedy. but we have to note that Bb was warned well ahead in time. She could have chosen a low profile arrival. 150 innocent lives gone!
Its All About unrestricted CASH FLOWS & Human DISPENSABILITY:
According to PILDAT (www.pildat.org) there are speculations that PPP spent huge sums of money estimated to range from Rs. 300 to 500 Million for the mobilization of PPP workers and sympathizers at her Karachi Airport reception.
The other COST is in terms of Human Lives lost or the COLLATERAL DAMAGE DUE TO BB: 140 PEOPLE DEAD. PAKISTAN’S 160 MILLION PEOPLE GET READY TO BECOME BB