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Archive for category MQM

KHURRAM MUNAWAR: Iqbal Tere Des Ka Kya Haal Sunaon اقبال تیرے دیس کا کیا حال سناؤں – A New Lament

 

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EJAZ HAIDER IN EXPRESS TRIBUNE: Karachi — welcome to Hell …

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Karachi — welcome to Hell …
 
January 8, 2013
 
Karachi, today, is a violent urban jungle with an assortment of lowlifes keeping the population hostage to their bastardly instincts. 
 
Consider the list of culprits. There are the scions of Baloch and Sindhi sardars and waderas who move around in SUVs with guards brandishing weapons (note that they do so becausetheir elders are bigger scum, thank you). Then there are the children of the urban rich who, having failed to instil urban values in the sardars and waderas, have adopted the latter’srural-medieval mindset
 
There are crooked politicians, their guards, political storm troopers; criminal gangs, ranging from thieves and robbers to land grabbers to extortionists and murderers to hired guns; cops on the take; a government split along ethnic lines; anyone who can rent a gun and settle a score. Finally, add to this list the Taliban terrorists and sectarian killers and you have, dear non-Karachi-ite reader, what Karachi isAt the centre of this is the majority of Karachi-ites, resigned to their fate, living from day to day, a terrified, terrible existence.
 
Nothing I’ve said in the preceding paragraph will surprise Karachi-ites. Karachi was not always like this but that’s another story. For now, this is about what it has become. Some of where (and how) Karachi became this hell is contained in a long-forgotten report by a commission Mr Nawaz Sharif had set up in the 90s under one General Shafiqur Rehman. This was the time theMarwat brothers were running amok. 
 
My friend Mazhar Abbas, a journalist of high merit, who has seen Karachi go to the dogs (or seen dogs come to Karachi, whichever way one puts it) tells me that the then chief minister of Sindh,Jam Sadiq Ali, would not provide security to the commission. They were holed up at the Sheraton and people deposed before them in the hotel. Still, the report is worth a read.
 
Extortion is common practice. Speak to businessmen and shopkeepers in the city and one realises the extent of the menace. People of all ethnicities and political affiliations are involved in it. A very senior journalist who constructed a house in Gulistan-e Jauhar received a call from the Baloch Aman Committee and the caller, after congratulating him on the new house, demanded that he pay up Rs 100,000 to ensure safe living in his home.
 
The journalist went to the Sindh governor, the Sindh CM, the IG Police, the CPLC, PFUJ, KUJ, the Presidency, you name it. Result: zip, zilch and zero. He locked his home and has shifted to Islamabad (because he could afford to; there are millions of other Karachi-ites who cannot afford to)The man has a home in Karachi and he is living in a rented house.Welcome to Karachi.
 
I asked Sheheryar Mirza, a young, freelance journalist, what the hell is going on. He had more stories to tell. A police officer said the police could clean up the city if only “we were given a free hand”. What does ‘free hand’ mean, I asked Mirza. “In the case of Karachi, it means that police officers will be allied with whoever is in power and their master’s enemies will bear the full brunt of police’s coercive power.”
 
So, the answer is not just giving a free hand to the police but creating a professional force that is politically neutral and whose work cannot be hampered by politically influential individuals. “They know, for the most part, what is going on,” says Mazhar, adding: “See, how quickly they have rounded up the accused in Shahzeb Khan’s murder case with the SC’s backing.”
 
The young man’s murder was what got me talking to people. Karachi has seen many killings. But for the most part they are either politically motivated, are the result of extortion and land grabbing, or are owed to terrorism. These menaces have come to define the city, unfortunately. But what about the upscale localities of Clifton and Defence; why are they insecure?
 
That is where the ‘respectable’ scum come in, treating citizens like serfs, driving around with guards, drunk, partying, picking up girls and very often raping and dumping them. “Why are such cases under-reported,” I asked a friend. Because, he said, people are afraid. These families are influential and killing a human being for them is like swatting a fly. Even if a case is reported, the rich and influential criminals never get punished.
 
And the government? There is no government. Karachi has political factions, even within the ruling coalition. The home department is dysfunctional. Zulfiqar Mirza, who huffed and puffed about security and governance, patronised criminals in Lyari. According to some estimates, he issued licences for some 400,000 weapons. We are, of course, told no weapons licences will be given until the elections. Is someone frikkin’ kidding us?
 
Shakir Husain, entrepreneur and writer, says it’s not just the feudal families that act like this. “This is a mindset. They break traffic rules, drive people off the roads; they can get away with anything.”
 
Some people are buying guns and acquiring guards as deterrence. The trend will continue. Those who bend will crouch and take it lying down. Those who say enough will also get into the killing game. Because what else can one do, living with constant indignities and governmental apathy, but take the war to the lowlifes, whether they reside inside or outside the government?
 
The police are not only corrupt and criminalised but also lacks manpower, equipment, investigation skills and professional integrity and independence.  This is a recipe for disaster in Pakistan’s financial hub. To imagine that the Sindh government and, by extension, the federal government can mount effective counterterrorism operations in a city that the vermin of all types hold by the short and curlies is to try and find one straight bone in Rana Sanaullah.
 
Karachi needs to be cleansed; from upper crust pests residing in upscale localities as much as from the thugs holed up in Orangi, Lyari and elsewhere. It needs political commitment and an effective police and civil administration. This is obvious. The question is, how. You want to know when a system has become totally dysfunctional? It is when the highest court in the land has to take suo-motu notice of a murder case because the nation is being ruled by criminals.
 
Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2013.

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Akbar Hussain: 14th January-The Re-awakening the Masses

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on 12, Jan 2013 

Taking into account the increasing hardships of the people – the different columnists, political analysts, anchorpersons and even the economists have been talking about the possibility of a revolution in Pakistan and also on who would be behind it during last several years.

Consequently, many political leaders also started claiming that they would bring revolution in the country.  But, surprisingly, whenever the wave of any revolution emerged in the country, the same media men and the political leaders preferred supporting the prevailing system and termed such a wave as a conspiracy by the establishment against the democracy. Everyone has been witnessing the same again when Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri held a very successfully public gathering at Minar-e-Pakistan on December 23rd 2012 and also made an announcement for a Long March for the revolutionary change in the electoral process. This contradiction naturally raises a question where these people are in favor of a revolutionary change in the country for benefiting the common men, or they are the beneficiaries of the existing system?

The most interesting aspect of this is that all the critics of the proposed Long March want Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri and MQM`s leadership to let the present system to continue and that if they really want to bring any change, they should achieve their agenda by coming into the electoral process. The question is, if the prevailing system is so effective, then why do the people of Pakistan have been facing so severe problems for several decades? Why did Pakistan get split into two parts? Why does our country have no value in the international world? If the present had been so fruitful, why do we have to face the Martial laws and the Army interventions in the politics?

 Are corruption, feudalism, injustice, terrorism, inflation, heavy debts, improper law & order situation and the crisis of electricity, water, fuel not sufficient to prove that this system needs be discarded as soon as possible?  How would the common men have any positive expectation from such a Parliament that does not let the legislation, which can benefit the common people, take place?

it is the matter of land reforms, discriminatory taxation, agriculture taxation, making more small units, delegation of administrative authorities to them, deweaponization of the country and facilitating the middle & lower middle class people to come into power, all the beneficiaries of this system get together against the people friendly legislation.  The worst aspect of the prevailing system came to light in 2007 when the movement for restoration of democracy started.

It was claimed not only by the lawyers` community, but also by the judges themselves that the judiciary had been enslaved for the last 60 years despite the presence of the “democratically” elected assemblies. Then, the judiciary had to get its freedom back not by approaching system-generated Institutions, but by way of coming on the roads for mobilizing people. If the system had been good enough, had the deposed judges gone beyond it? Not only the affected party, but also almost all the political and religious parties were with hands in hands on the roads against the democratic government. Should they not have preferred getting their demand met in the Parliament that came into existence by way of the electoral process?

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It is also on record that all the Army Generals who sacked the democratic governments and took over the reign of the country, were also justifying their unconstitutional acts arguing that they wanted to help the poor people. The similar case is with the media as well. It also claims to have got its freedom restored after several decades. Would the media persons like to name the constitutionally set up body from which they got their freedom back? So, why is so that when it was the matter of their own freedom, all these people completely ignored the existing means defined by the Constitution, but when it is the matter the of political, social and the economic freedom of the common people they are imposing limitations?? Is it fair? Are they in favor of the peopleor the system that has sucked blood of the people?

 

In addition to all these, Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri and MQM leadership have been struggling to make the people friendly changes in the system, but the defenders did not let it come true. Now, the level of dissatisfaction of the people has arrived at the point, where meaningful changes have to be made for them. So, if the Long March critics are still of the view that present system can solve the people`s problems, they will have to come up with the concrete solution of their problems from within their system before 14th of January. Otherwise, 14th of January would prove to be as the last of the day of the rotten and corrupt system of the elite class people and a day of re-awakening of the masses!

 

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