Finally, time has proved that the so-called Lyari operation was of a political nature and had nothing to do with the officially quoted impression that the poorly thought out bloody crackdown was the government’s indiscriminate action to eliminate warring gangsters from the city’s oldest neighbourhood.
Things are always dubious, thus confusing, when there is some politicking involved. And political touch in the half-concluded Lyari saga pertains to the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s representational existence in the impoverished locality.
Being the political stronghold of a ruling party may, subjectively, be a good omen, but not this time for Lyari where a weeklong mini-war saw the poverty-stricken residents and the law enforcers being used as scapegoats in the hands of the most referred political actors in their bloody bid to attain the underlying political objectives that would suit them in the forthcoming general elections.
Needless to say that the pressuring move, as some quarters think of the poorly planned operation, rendered little or no damage to the gangsters.
If not taking criminals to task, then what end did the disciples of Machiavelli in the Sindh government want to achieve from the Lyari operation?
This question perhaps kick starts a never-ending guessing game. A Lyariite version, however, would always prevail against the views ever tabled by other schools of thought.
“The people of Lyari want the born Lyariites to be their elected representatives or, at least, the ones who are physically accessible for them,” said a well-informed Lyariite, having a deep insight into the recent happenings in the predominantly Baloch neighbourhood.
The term “born Lyariite” appears to be, and has all the potential to be if it is not already, the real bone of contention between the People’s Party and its voters in Lyari, whose once unconditional allegiance to the Bhuttos-led PPP is said to have developed some breaches ever since Abdul Rehman Baloch, widely known as Rehman Dakait, was killed in a police encounter by the Lyari operation hero Chaudhry Aslam Khan of the Crime Investigation Department.
To me, Rehman Baloch’s reference as a dacoit is very much reflective of the international impression that a terrorist of one nation is a freedom fighter of the other.
The newly found demand for a representative who is “born Lyariite” obviously puts to question the political future of PPP’s present heavyweights, prominently Member National Assembly Nabeel Gabol and Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Muhammad Rafique Engineer from Lyari.
And if media reports and the general perception are to be believed, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a would-be representative hopeful from Lyari, stands in the same line.
“Nabeel and Rafique or others (Bhutto Zardaris), expected to contest elections from Lyari, are seen as locals and no further,” said the Lyariite.
Reminded that at least poor Engineer (Rafique) must be a Lyariite by birth, the source said even if he was the MPA, he was inaccessible to his voters.
“He used to live in Lyari until Musharraf’s government. As soon as he became a [provincial] minister, he shifted to the Defence bungalow, far away from Lyari,” the man said.
These claims carry enough weight if viewed in the backdrop of recent media statements of Uzair Jan Baloch, head of the banned People’s Amn Committee (PAC).
Baloch has been repetitive – at least until the Lyari operation was called off for 48 hours that, however, are yet to pass – in unveiling his will to contest the fast approaching next year polls, of course, from Lyari.
The PAC chief’s intentions must have rung alarm bells in the PPP ranks, where the top leadership of the “Khappay” fame resorted to the use of force to warn Baloch against executing his political wishes.
But, miscalculating the real military muscles of the outlawed gangs, as the Sindh police subsequently conceded, forced the PPP-led coalition government to come to the ultimate and ideal choice of table talk.
One of the trouble-shooters this time is, reportedly, Sindh Food Minister Mir Nadir Khan Magsi, PPP’s Baloch stalwart now tasked to persuade the estranged Baloch of Lyari through some diplomacy.
And this very fact is hindering the government’s way in resuming the Lyari operation – or “raid” as Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah dubbed it at the Sindh Assembly – even after the exhaustion of the 48-hour ceasefire, apparently declared to enable the gangsters to surrender.
Now, whereas the news-driven media whips have almost forgotten the Lyari episode, the PPP leadership is faced with the option that has been very much fashionable in our country for over six decades: “changing the horses”.
Yes, the choice this time seems to be to either replace Nabeel Gabol (maybe Engineer as well) with someone to the liking of the Lyariites or resume the Lyari operation.
I would never wonder if a solution somewhere in between these two options is found by the top PPP leadership, which is well-known for making unexpected political summersaults using its most-referred “political acumen and sagacity” that, however, is believed to be based on the notion of “give something to all opponents”.
So, when all is said and done, the question arises: Was the Lyari operation all about saving the PPP men, especially Gabol, their traditional electoral seats? Though tending to agree, I dare not say this… as a matter of courtesy.
