KARACHI: Looking to women for ensuring peace in city
By Zofeen T. Ebrahim
KARACHI, Aug 15: “The idea is to ensure that a May 12 never happens again,” said Nasir Aslam Zahid, former judge and one of the members of the Women’s Commission for Peace, formed in time for Tuesday when Pakistan celebrated its 60th year of independence.
Though launched by the prominent advocacy group, Women’s Action Forum, the peace commission comprises eminent doctors, members of civil society, lawyers, journalists and ordinary ‘peaceful’ citizens to “counter violence through peace” and as a reaction to the May 12 ethnic violence that rocked Karachi.
“I think the urban middle-class of Karachi has a lot of strength and together with the civil society, we can demonstrate that dialogue as opposed to violence should always be the recourse,” said Tasneem Siddiqui, a member of the commission.
With ‘Puramn Karachi’ (Peaceful Karachi) as its slogan, illustrated aptly by the Jehangir Kothari Parade, the commission is rooting for tolerance by encouraging a diversity of views and identities. “When differences crop up, tolerance for a diversity of views and identities should be encouraged,” said a statement. “Intolerance, hate and extremism that have gripped the city are eroding civil society, political, democratic and state institutions. If this issue is not addressed the electoral process, which is the only mode towards democracy, rule of law, rights and duties vis-a-vis the state and the citizen would attain irrelevancy,” it stated further.
“We fear if we don’t act now, with elections around the corner, violence will erupt with the impact manifold and hard to contain,” said Mr Siddiqui and Mr Zahid.
The May 12 violence had left 45 people dead and over 150 injured when the Chief Justice of Pakistan (then suspended by President Pervez Musharraf) arrived in Karachi to address a lawyers’ convention at the High Court of Sindh.
“We just have a one-point agenda which is also our vision and that’s peace,” said Kausar S. Khan, another member of the commission.
He said peace was the ultimate yardstick for assessing anything and everything. Though the task would not be easy, the very effort to maintain peace would hopefully make people a little more reflective of what they were, Mr Khan said, adding that it would help guide human behaviour, especially in “skewed power-relations”.
“We want to turn the clock back to the time when Karachi was a dynamic, living and multi-cultural city,” said Mr Siddiqui while pointing out that for the last 20 years the metropolis had been in the grip of intermittent violence with loss of precious lives.
He said, “Karachi is prone to violence and strikes... the loss is irredeemable. During a strike it is the daily wage earners who are the worst affected. If they don’t work for two days, there will be no food for their children on the third day.”
“It’s everyone’s city and everyone has a right to live here in peace,” said Mr Zahid, referring to the May 12 carnage when the ruling political party in Sindh had declared that Karachi was owned by Mohajirs (Urdu-speaking settlers who had migrated to Karachi from India) and no one else would be allowed to hold a rally here.
Why a women’s commission?
With stalwart male members like Justice Zahid and Tasneem Siddiqui as founding members, the question uppermost in many minds is why call it a women’s commission? “Women are less prone to gun-toting violent behaviour, less involved in power-grabbing politics and also suffer the most when a male member of the family dies as happened on May 12,” said Nasreen Siddiqui, the commission’s convener who feels the impact of violence on women and children is manifold.
At another level, she said, women’s voices were better heard, given greater credence when they went to negotiate peace even with the perpetrators of violence.
“Women (and of course many men) are more vested in peace than those who are vested in grabbing power. I think the word women will help keep WCP conscious of its own origin,” Kausar S. Khan rejoined.
But are there not enough committees and commissions saying the same thing? Nasreen Siddiqui thinks otherwise as she asserted that there were non-governmental organisations working for human rights but there was none working in a direct way, dedicated to promoting peace.
Interestingly, May 12 refuses to become a postscript. The launch of the WCP coincided with the hearing of the reference with regard to the treatment meted out to lawyers, judges, litigants and other officers of the High Court when they tried to come to the court on the morning of May 12. The court has also initiated a contempt case against the chief minister of Sindh.
Of the 35 questions posed by the amicus curiae Qazi Faez Isa, assisting the court, were the following: Who is responsible for law and order in the city? What are the responsibilities of the police and the rangers? Were the police disarmed on May 12; if yes, on whose orders? Were they standing as helpless bystanders when people were being killed and the city burnt; if yes, on whose orders? Who placed the trailers and tankers on the roads and how many? Who removed them and on whose orders? Was emergency declared at hospitals? Did the government do anything vis-a-vis the injured persons? What is the status of complaints filed with police in connection with May 12?
As a first step the peace commission aims at initiating a dialogue with various political parties to adopt a democratic process and include peace in its manifesto while ensuring that its workers do not carry and use arms. “And not just political parties but we will hold dialogue with any other group in the city that WCP considers is a risk to peace in the city,” added Mr Khan.
“We must make Karachi weapon-free,” stressed Justice Majida Razvi, a commission member, referring again to the May 12 events when young Karachiittes were seen brandishing sophisticated automatic weapons.—Dawn/IPS News Service
