Intrigue is rife here, to paraphrase mercilessly the fascinating and fascinatingly racist account of the legendary nineteenth century anthropologist Sir Richard Burton about our part of the world. And, he added, much disputes are settled by that ancient tool of statecraft in the orient: poison.
With the possibility arising that the late leader of the Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz Bashir Qureshi died due to poisoning, another reminder emerges of how medievalist our state remains in certain matters. It is premature to jump to conclusions at this stage; only the possibility hasn’t been denied. But this is because activists and followers rarely come to terms with deaths, that too, young deaths, without suspecting foul play. The narrative of victimhood can be based on the truth; it can be based on falsehood. And it can even be based on falsehood genuinely believed by those propagating it, from the very beginning, to be the truth. Narratives hold when they have takers.
The late Bashir Qureshi was a fine man, genuinely respected by many. As opposed to the MQM and the ANP, which are not ethnic officially but that is somehow their lot, the JSQM is overtly ethnic. However, like the PkMAP’s Mahmood Achakzai, Mr Qureshi was rarely found to have been indulging in rhetoric that could have reasonably been construed to be racist. At least not against those within the province of Sindh.
Aggrieved parties are what they are: aggrieved. And their demands, whims as they might appear to some, should be entertained to their satisfaction. The PPP government in Sindh has shown this courtesy to the party, which is its traditional ideological nemesis in capturing the imaginations, if not the votes, of Sindhis. A sample is to be sent to London for analysis.
Meanwhile, violence rages on. JSQM activists are on a rampage. This could be cathartic but it is to no one’s benefit, least of all the urban poor, who, in Sukkar at least, emanate from the ethnicity the JSQM purports to serve.