What do we know about what happened on May 12?
By Tahir Hasan Khan
What price did Karachi pay on May 12 and for whom? Moreover, what will the city achieve by paying this price? Is there somebody to answer this? Many people also ask why Karachi was chosen to bear this huge price. After all, who selected this city to settle their scores and to satisfy their egos in such a violent manner?
One thing for sure is that different people will have different answers about such queries.
However, I personally think the reaper of the damage will take a long time and people of this mega city would suffer for a long time.
Another thing that is for certain is that the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry flew back home from Karachi on Saturday without addressing the Sindh High Court Bar.
Meanwhile, President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was able to address his rally behind bullet-proof glass and stringent commando security. The president seemed in high spirits and blamed the Chief Justice of Pakistan for the killings and violence in Karachi.
The president also congratulated Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain for holding such a big rally in the federal capital. He proudly exclaimed that people of Karachi showed their support for him through the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) rally, organised in Karachi to show its strength and to counter the oppositionâs plans.
We also know some other facts. The Sindh High Court and Karachi Bar Association invited the CJP to address their members and fixed 12 May for their programme. On this news, opposition alliances ARD and MMA and ANP and PTI planned to welcome the Chief Justice on his visit to the city.
We know that the situation had become tense in the city when the opposition parties and MQM started their preparations for May 12 simultaneously. The Sindh government wrote a letter to the Supreme Court and informed the Registrar of the SC that the situation in Karachi is not suitable for a visit by the CJP.
It is also known that Sindh Home Secretary Brig (retd) Ghulam Muhammad Mohteram, a retired army officer considered to be very close Musharraf, wrote to the Supreme Court to ask for the CJPâs Karachi visit to be postponed.
In his letter, he wrote: âit is foreseen that the planned caravan of the Honourable Chief Justice of Supreme Court from Karachi airport to different venues in the town could be stopped by political elements and in ensuing melee, the person and thus the office of the honourable CJP might be slighted.â
The federal government also warned the CJP and asked him to cancel his visit. But Chaudhry refused to cancel. Therefore, finally, the provincial government blocked Shahrah-e-Faisal one day before the arrival of the CJP with containers, trucks and buses.
People had never seen this type of arrangement. Many preferred to stay in their homes as they foresaw, albeit vaguely, what could potentially happen out on the streets. The CJP and his team landed in the city according to schedule, but, as it happened, they were confined at the airport as the hosts, the Bar leaders, could not reach the airport to receive them.
Aitizaz Ahsan came out from the airport and told the media that the Sindh home secretary and CCPO were forcing the CJP to travel from the airport to the Sindh High Court by helicopter, but that Chaudhry had refused, insisting that he will go with his host. As it turned out, the hosts did not show up at the airport and finally the CJP flew back home without addressing the Bars and without addressing the Bars and without the sort of welcome that was accorded to him in the Punjab one week prior to his visit to Karachi.
Begum Abida Hussain, who belongs to a very reputed family of Punjab, and who has served many important positions in different governments, arrived in the city to see the welcome of the CJP.
She told me that she was worried when the CJP was coming to the Punjab. She feared of what would happen if the people of Punjab did not respond well and did not welcome Chaudhry.
She said that such thoughts were natural, as was the thought that it would leave a very bad impression about Punjab if the Punjabis showed their loyalty to be with the rulers instead of the CJP, who had become a symbol for the independence of the judiciary.
She also felt that the impression of Punjabis was bad within the country and they were considered to be pro-establishment because of the fact that a majority of the army men belong to the Punjab.
Hussain said she was shocked when she saw the people of the Punjab come onto the streets from Islamabad to Lahore. Women, aged people, children and people from every walk of life were on the roads along with their families. It, she said, looked as if it was Eid, with everybody happy and ready to welcome a man who refused to bow to the orders of a âdictator.â
She was happy, she said, at the end of the event because the people of Punjab changed the impression that they were pro-establishment. This was accentuated by the fact that the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi had organised a rally by the ruling party on same day and brought all government employees, teachers, patwaris and peons for the rally.
However, the people of the Punjab did not like this act and, despite all efforts to stop it, the CJP was welcomed in a historic manner.
Hussain said she came to Karachi with the same spirit and to see the same scenario, but ended up going back sad and despondent. The senior politician said she believed that the people of Karachi were not responsible for this situation. They, she believed, are democratic and always played a role against dictatorship. She said Musharraf and his allies Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Altaf Hussain are disturbed with the popularity of the CJP and the historic welcome that he received in Punjab only heightened this feeling. She said that they felt that his popularity posed a threat to their power.
Perhaps her analysis holds some answers for the people of Karachi.
Asim you make me laugh. Musharrah is MQM he is member of them and he supports them if you support Musharraf you support MQM.
for it! Geez and you were lecturing me about traitors! Now I get your resentment! You are a goddamn Bugti supporter!
