A call for executive and judicial intervention would be in line
Karachi and its fear-intoxicated people are bathed in orgies of killing with mundane regularity now. Tuesday last was another day enacted in the dastardly mould of May 12 when a dictator in Islamabad publicly announced his revenge over those who dared to challenge his authority. The revenge was coloured with the blood of over 50 innocent people who were shot mercilessly because they had dared to step out to receive the deposed chief justice. This time around, another twelve graves were dug to bury the victims of a clinically planned assault on those who had taken out a rally in support of a united Sindh. In spite of palpable evidence available then, the perpetrators of the May 12 carnage were never brought to justice. It is feared that this last killing spree in Karachi would also go unpunished.
The rally that was fired upon was jointly taken out by the People’s Aman Committee (PAC) and the Awami Tehreek (AT) against the demand for a separate Mohajir province. AT president Ayaz Palijo alleged that those responsible for the carnages of April 9, May 12 and the Ashura Day were behind the May 22 bloodbath also. Understandably, he was pointing his finger at the MQM which has been repeatedly accused of drenching Karachi in blood to perpetuate the fear syndrome that it has so assiduously built around the hapless city and its inhabitants. Many also accuse it of clandestinely patronising the move for a separate province in Sindh.
Not that the rest of the country presents any promising picture, but the situation in Karachi has deteriorated to an abominable level. In spite of credible evidence produced about the alleged involvement of the MQM in the May 12 carnage, the proceedings have remained inconclusive because of the lack of interest the government has shown in bringing the criminals to justice. This is part of its much-maligned policy of ‘reconciliation’ where chunks of the state territory have been ceded to the brutal jurisdiction of mafias in exchange for their support to ensure PPP’s stay in power. Karachi has also been a victim of this criminal bargaining where the MQM and its coterie of bandits call the shots much to the angst of even the diehard PPP supporters.
There is little doubt that the political parties operating in Karachi have their militant wings, but none as lethal as the MQM. The party has built its clinical effectiveness around the twin dragons of fear and violence. Its members have been accused of running an organised network of extortion and murder while its leader, a British citizen, sits in London organising and overseeing the party’s activities. One wonders what moral or constitutional authority does a person have, who has sworn allegiance to safeguard another state’s interests, to operate long-distance to wantonly lord over the fate of Karachi – once a city of lights that has been reduced to the state of a ghost town with its people living in perpetual fear of being cut in pieces, packed in gunny bags and left to rot by some forlorn corner? This is trademark MQM, yet the entire state apparatus is helpless to check its activities, instil order and save the lives of its people who are left at the mercy of a party that has its roots entrenched in a violent philosophy of enforcing its will through the barrel of the gun.
That also brings to light the reason behind the disproportionate level of interest that the MQM has shown in creating smaller provinces. For a party that has its base confined to Karachi and part of Hyderabad, it is strange when it tries to project itself as the champion of the fate of the entire country. Lurking behind this claim is its interest in carving a separate province in Sindh consisting of areas where the Mohajirs are in a majority. For the time being, it is not in the forefront of this campaign, but would soon take charge once the message has been effectively and broadly disseminated and Pakistan is further weakened at the hands of its corrupt rulers with whom the MQM is a close partner.
I am also amazed at the lack of interest that other political parties have shown in combating this campaign of cutting Pakistan into pieces along ethnic and sectarian lines. In view of the critical importance of the issue to the future of the country, it should have been included as an item in the political parties’ agendas for winning broad-based support at the next election which is less than a year away. For this controversial item to be projected for winning crude political support among a select community reflects ulterior motives that may be inimical to the interests of the country.
Combating violence and eliminating its causes and perpetrators should be the principal objective of all parties that have a share in the government as well as those who may be sitting outside the parliament. Using violence and murder as tools for attaining political objectives is a reprehensible act that should be protested widely and strongly. The silence that pervades the political spectrum is a sign of the weakness of the system, the state institutions and the people at large as also the complicity of the political leaderships. If ‘democracy’ becomes an instrument in the hands of its manipulators to promote their adversarial agendas, it needs to be tackled through initiatives that are outlined in the constitution including a call for executive and judicial intervention to help establish the writ of the state.
The writer is a political analyst and a member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf. He can be reached at [email protected]
