Perceptron
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Are we losing the battle for Pakistan in the killing fields of Karachi? The more you mull over the situation in Karachi, the more this question raises its head like a venomous snake, sticking out its forked tongue. And one conclusion that most people seem easy to draw is that the present rulers are unwilling or unable to mount a credible strategy to protect the nation in this hour of crisis.
Karachi, it is true, has been bleeding intermittently for a very long time. But the current spell, marked by one hundred brutal killings in just one week of August, has portrayed a level of barbarity that has diminished us all as civilised human beings. The game has changed even if the players are mostly the same. We are truly confronted by a state of anarchy.
One finds it hard to contend with the explosion of outrage throughout the country. Because the killings in Karachi have come in the wake of an endless sequence of violence, including bombings, kidnappings for ransom, armed robberies and other instances of lethal disorder, our nerves have been totally shattered. There are no tears left to shed.
Take the case of the kidnapping of Shahbaz Taseer, son of Salmaan Taseer, in Lahore on Friday. In some ways, it was the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab, on the fourth day of this year that had launched a new phase of concern for the future of this country. It was not just the fact that Salmaan was gunned down by his own guard, while the rest of his guards stood and watched, that was frightening. More troubling was its aftermath and the manner in which the Pakistan Peoples Party government, of which he was a shining star, responded to the tragedy.
Now, the kidnapping of his young son Shahbaz has rekindled the memory of an assassination that was aimed, in a metaphorical sense, at the very concept of Pakistan as a modern and enlightened nation. The pity is that our present rulers did not have the courage to assert their professed values and boldly confront the menace of religious extremism. Hence, they have been passive spectators when primitive, obscurantist passions have broadened their reach.
It is this cowardice or an abject surrender to mufahimat for the sake of survival that is manifest in the PPP leaderships reluctance in forcefully dealing with the law and order situation in Karachi. But the consequences of this political deception are obvious. We are sinking deeper into a horrifying calamity that our leaders may not even be able to fully comprehend.
One theme that is reverberating in the minds of serious observers is that the country may not survive if the state of affairs in Karachi remains as perilous as it is at present. Two examples of this apprehension: the Supreme Court has taken a suo motu notice and has shifted the venue of its proceedings to Karachi and the visit of the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to the city with some top leaders of the PML-N.
On Friday, heading the five-judge bench in Islamabad, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said that the government had failed to maintain law and order in Karachi and that it is a question of the countrys survival and the issue will have to be resolved. Shahbaz Sharif, who had a hectic round of consultations with the business and the civil society elite of Karachi, had the same refrain. He said in a meeting on Thursday: We are already on the brink of total disaster.
On its part, the federal government has certainly gone through the motions of expressing its concern and initiating some moves to go after the killers and extortionists. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was in the city on Monday and he presided over two sessions of the Sindh cabinet to chalk out a plan to conduct a surgical operation in the affected localities without bowing to pressure from any quarters.
But the results so far have not at all been encouraging. The political will to take the bull by the horns, like always, is not in evidence. One observation that is universally made is that the authorities are well aware of who the culprits are but they hesitate to take action for expedient reasons. Meanwhile, as a consequence of official apathy, some new gangs have been mobilised into action, armed with sophisticated weapons. Ethnic rivalries have resurfaced. There are new claimants for the booty that is appropriated from Karachis economy. The turf war is becoming more vicious.
At all levels, people are at the end of their tether. The entire society is suffering a kind of collective nervous breakdown. A large number of people are literally going wild with rage, unable to bear the pain of what is happening in their communities. Television coverage of the bereaved families breaks your heart. And you know that the present rulers are not equal to the task, as their shenanigans in Karachi would certify. You simply do not know who is calling the shots.
A number of press releases issued by the Sindh government have documented the neurotic state of mind of the administration. There was one that purported to give safe passage to the killers and the extortionists asking them to leave the city. Multiple statements were made on Thursday about the plan to hold an all parties conference on Friday, one cancelling out the other. It is almost becoming a joke.
Incidentally, there has been a tradition in Sindh to gloss over major upheavals. In an English daily on Friday, there was an interview with former Sindh chief minister, Arbab Ghulam Rahim in which he apologised for the bloodshed that had taken place in Karachi on May 12, 2007, under his watch. His excuse was that he wielded no real power. Let me quote from the published report: He went on to say that after the incident, he did not want to create further anarchy by initiating an inquiry into the incident, adding that this was the reason he preferred to remain silent over the issue just for the sake of peace in the city.
What logic! This is how Karachi has been allowed to go down the drain. You trade for more bloodshed, more disorder just for the sake of peace in the city. A similar logic is apparently being invested in the half-hearted operations conducted at this time. After every spell of killings, they speak the same lines: Enough is enough. We will not tolerate it any longer. Still, it is not possible to ascertain the threshold of this administrations tolerance. In any case, it is the cry of the people of Karachi and of Pakistan that enough is enough.
The writer is a staff member. Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail. com
Link :: On the brink of disaster
Karachi, it is true, has been bleeding intermittently for a very long time. But the current spell, marked by one hundred brutal killings in just one week of August, has portrayed a level of barbarity that has diminished us all as civilised human beings. The game has changed even if the players are mostly the same. We are truly confronted by a state of anarchy.
One finds it hard to contend with the explosion of outrage throughout the country. Because the killings in Karachi have come in the wake of an endless sequence of violence, including bombings, kidnappings for ransom, armed robberies and other instances of lethal disorder, our nerves have been totally shattered. There are no tears left to shed.
Take the case of the kidnapping of Shahbaz Taseer, son of Salmaan Taseer, in Lahore on Friday. In some ways, it was the assassination of Salmaan Taseer, Governor of Punjab, on the fourth day of this year that had launched a new phase of concern for the future of this country. It was not just the fact that Salmaan was gunned down by his own guard, while the rest of his guards stood and watched, that was frightening. More troubling was its aftermath and the manner in which the Pakistan Peoples Party government, of which he was a shining star, responded to the tragedy.
Now, the kidnapping of his young son Shahbaz has rekindled the memory of an assassination that was aimed, in a metaphorical sense, at the very concept of Pakistan as a modern and enlightened nation. The pity is that our present rulers did not have the courage to assert their professed values and boldly confront the menace of religious extremism. Hence, they have been passive spectators when primitive, obscurantist passions have broadened their reach.
It is this cowardice or an abject surrender to mufahimat for the sake of survival that is manifest in the PPP leaderships reluctance in forcefully dealing with the law and order situation in Karachi. But the consequences of this political deception are obvious. We are sinking deeper into a horrifying calamity that our leaders may not even be able to fully comprehend.
One theme that is reverberating in the minds of serious observers is that the country may not survive if the state of affairs in Karachi remains as perilous as it is at present. Two examples of this apprehension: the Supreme Court has taken a suo motu notice and has shifted the venue of its proceedings to Karachi and the visit of the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to the city with some top leaders of the PML-N.
On Friday, heading the five-judge bench in Islamabad, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said that the government had failed to maintain law and order in Karachi and that it is a question of the countrys survival and the issue will have to be resolved. Shahbaz Sharif, who had a hectic round of consultations with the business and the civil society elite of Karachi, had the same refrain. He said in a meeting on Thursday: We are already on the brink of total disaster.
On its part, the federal government has certainly gone through the motions of expressing its concern and initiating some moves to go after the killers and extortionists. Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was in the city on Monday and he presided over two sessions of the Sindh cabinet to chalk out a plan to conduct a surgical operation in the affected localities without bowing to pressure from any quarters.
But the results so far have not at all been encouraging. The political will to take the bull by the horns, like always, is not in evidence. One observation that is universally made is that the authorities are well aware of who the culprits are but they hesitate to take action for expedient reasons. Meanwhile, as a consequence of official apathy, some new gangs have been mobilised into action, armed with sophisticated weapons. Ethnic rivalries have resurfaced. There are new claimants for the booty that is appropriated from Karachis economy. The turf war is becoming more vicious.
At all levels, people are at the end of their tether. The entire society is suffering a kind of collective nervous breakdown. A large number of people are literally going wild with rage, unable to bear the pain of what is happening in their communities. Television coverage of the bereaved families breaks your heart. And you know that the present rulers are not equal to the task, as their shenanigans in Karachi would certify. You simply do not know who is calling the shots.
A number of press releases issued by the Sindh government have documented the neurotic state of mind of the administration. There was one that purported to give safe passage to the killers and the extortionists asking them to leave the city. Multiple statements were made on Thursday about the plan to hold an all parties conference on Friday, one cancelling out the other. It is almost becoming a joke.
Incidentally, there has been a tradition in Sindh to gloss over major upheavals. In an English daily on Friday, there was an interview with former Sindh chief minister, Arbab Ghulam Rahim in which he apologised for the bloodshed that had taken place in Karachi on May 12, 2007, under his watch. His excuse was that he wielded no real power. Let me quote from the published report: He went on to say that after the incident, he did not want to create further anarchy by initiating an inquiry into the incident, adding that this was the reason he preferred to remain silent over the issue just for the sake of peace in the city.
What logic! This is how Karachi has been allowed to go down the drain. You trade for more bloodshed, more disorder just for the sake of peace in the city. A similar logic is apparently being invested in the half-hearted operations conducted at this time. After every spell of killings, they speak the same lines: Enough is enough. We will not tolerate it any longer. Still, it is not possible to ascertain the threshold of this administrations tolerance. In any case, it is the cry of the people of Karachi and of Pakistan that enough is enough.
The writer is a staff member. Email: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail. com
Link :: On the brink of disaster
