THERE is a debate raging on whether the recent attack on Bahria Town Karachi was just an act of vandalism, or was it an ethno-oriented volcano that erupted on the day. Was it an attempt to exterminate the minority by the majority?

The unprovoked massacre in 1986 to the worst kind of mayhem that lasted for three days, from Dec 27 to 29, in 2007, it has been a long tale of woes.

The question arises why the law-enforcement agencies could not take precautionary measures when they knew that the crowd was heading to the target site near Karachi? How long will the peace-loving people suffer due to the negligence, inefficiency or want of necessary paraphernalia for police to fight various types of protesters?

There is another pertinent question: why are not the deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners invested with magisterial powers, as, I believe, the highest court of judicature had permitted long ago to appoint administrative magistrates? They used to be very helpful in managing the law and order situation within their own jurisdictions. This needs due consideration by the government.

Syed Sardar Ahmad

Karachi

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WHILE addressing an assembly of aristocrats and feudal lords back in the 14th century Europe, a priest is said to have remarked: ‘Gentlemen, you are not thieves, but what you eat is the fruit of theft’.

If this priest were alive today, he would say to most of our real estate developers: ‘Gentlemen, you are not landgrabbers, but what you have is the outcome of landgrabbing’.

Once a trade union leader was trying to define capitalism and communism to a group of workers, but somehow failed to highlight the difference between the two. An intellectual, a sort of cynic, sitting at the next table in the canteen came to the leader’s help. ‘Look guys, it is very simple. Capitalism is a system in which man is exploited by man, and in communism it is the other way round’.

Detractors may call the land-developers ‘landgrabbers’, but they are actually ‘land-lovers’. Money washes all the stains as long as it functions as buyer of goods and virtues.

Since money is the supreme value, no one is foolish enough to ask our heroes where they get their money from.

Nadeem

Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2021