Karachi’s dead don’t matter to lawmakers

An eruption of negativity between the top two political parties on Thursday marred the National Assembly debate on the situation in Karachi, with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) legislators slinging mud at each other’s leaders and suggesting they had no feelings for the ongoing bloodshed in the embattled city of Karachi that has claimed hundreds of lives.
Near adjournment time, PML-N leaders made a failed attempt to stage a walkout from assembly proceedings against load shedding and violence in Karachi, but Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim preempted their move and adjourned the session till Friday (today). PPP National Assembly Member (MNA) Imtiaz Safdar Warraich triggered a clash between the PPP and PML-N by highlighting his party’s achievements, but did not even mention the unrest in Karachi. He played down the opposition’s criticism over the government’s performance, saying the PML-N was out to gain political mileage on sensitive issues such as Karachi. He said the PPP had won all elections since 2002 and any other party’s government did not add even a single megawatt to the national grid.
CORE COMMITTEE CIRCUS: PML-N MNA Khurram Dastagir said Karachi was bleeding while the “core committee circus” was on, but no practical action had been taken by the government. “There is a core committee circus on in Karachi while a game of ping-pong is being played in Balochistan with the government blaming the army operation for the unrest as the army holds the rulers responsible for the killings. No action has been taken despite the fact that 1,200 Punjabi settlers were killed,” he said.

“In a crumbling society, first governance dies, then people die, then economy dies and finally a society dies, which later brings down a country or a nation. Let me tell the rulers that Pakistani blood was never as cheap as they have made it now,” Dastagir said. Quoting a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) report, he said the rulers were insensitive to the bloodbath in Karachi while a turf war raged between thugs. He said the government itself was a lawbreaker as governance was dying in Karachi, Quetta and other parts of the country. “This government does not govern. It cheats, loots and plunders and finally kills its own people. PML-N wants fact-finding in the Karachi violence,” he said. PML-N leader Ahsen Iqbal said on a point of order that despite the government’s tall claims, power still went out during Sehr and Iftar, and the people were also facing problems at railway stations because of delays in trains. He said if the government did not stop load shedding during Sehr and Iftar timings, the PML-N would launch a countrywide protest.
JUI-F CHIEF: Earlier, amidst the uproar and point-scoring, Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) lawmakers called for sanity and urged all stakeholders to sit together and resolve the issues amicably. JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman opposed any military operation in Karachi, saying neither brazen martial law nor a partial military operation could resolve the situation, only talks could.
“The issue of Karachi requires serious attention of the government and all stakeholders need to sit together and find a serious solution to the problem. It seems that the rulers are not serious about restoring peace to Karachi. The Awami National Party, a treasury party, had demanded military operation and now the MQM has joined the call, even though it was opposed to the idea earlier. This change of mind reflects the gravity of the situation,” he said.
He said allegations of fueling linguistic and ethnic hatred in Karachi were being made against the president, which was very unfortunate. He said the use of brute force was not a good idea to resolve issues and all other options should be explored.
Fazl said the people only turned to the military when civilian rule deteriorated. He said after the failure of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government to reign in militants, a military operation was launched in KP and the tribal areas. He said calls for a military operation in Karachi reflected the failure of the Sindh government.
“I have time and again told the rulers that the army is a national institution and it should not be used against our own public. If 700,000 soldiers cannot end the freedom movement in Kashmir, how can this move show results in Pakistan?” he asked.
PPP MINISTERS: MQM lawmaker Sajid Ahmed accused PPP ministers of being involved in the ongoing killings in and around Katti Pahari and Qasba Colony. “Whether we were in the government or opposition, we faced incidents of genocide against our people, and women and children are being killed in Karachi and the writ of the government does not seem to hold anywhere across the city,” he said. He said extortionists were killing traders over their refusal to pay money. He said this was a repetition of a massacre of Muhajirs carried out in Karachi in 1964 because of their support for Fatima Jinnah. He said the MQM’s mandate would have to be accepted for peace and tranquility in Karachi and the law enforcement agencies would have to deal with targeted killings with an iron fist.
ANP MNA Bushra Gohar came down hard on the PPP and PML-N for attempting to divert focus from the Karachi unrest and said Karachi was burning and bleeding but seriousness had not been shown so far in ending the violence.