Peaceful polls rekindle hopes for unity
One Karachiite remarked: “Admittedly the turnout was low in the city, as elsewhere in the country, but that doesn’t surprise anyone. It’s the absence of trouble, as was feared, that came as a pleasant surprise. People of this metropolitan city are tired of violence… and bloodshed… and confrontation. They want peace, they want to carry on with their life, and improve quality of life.”
Let me state at the outset that more often than not, of all the cities in the country, it is Karachi that occupies centre stage. It is the largest city, largest tax-payer, biggest commercial and financial centre, and there are a number of firsts, without the slightest doubt. It is the city that people from all over the country move into for economic reasons. Even in the periods when there had been extended and prolonged spans of unrest and violence, the city retained its magnetic appeal.
Let me also bring in here, as one reflects after the local bodies polls and their results, that I have observed on so many recent occasions, well after midnight, despite the crime and the insecurity, an amazing inexplicable presence of huge crowds moving merrily on the streets. Whether it is Karachi’s late night weddings, or the desire to eat out, or the culture of sleeping late, or the charm of being outdoors, families, friends, business groups, a city on the go.
This very city in the local bodies polls was under scrutiny, in close focus, under the microscope, and it seemed that the entire international media had zoomed in on Pakistan. And one obvious indicator of this was the manner and extent to which the television channels were discussing Karachi. Even before the polling day, there was prime time focus on Karachi, and believe me, as a citizen I was scared. Like other Karachiites, I too have lived through trouble and tragedy in this city, to such an extent that now insecurity is perhaps almost integral to living in this Sindh capital. We live a tense life, urban tension, the causes of which are several. And we know them.
Therefore, as the days rolled by, and the date of the election came closer, citizens felt unsure of the kind of polling day, with people saying that they would rather stay at home. Others said cynical things about democracy and the quality of leadership available. Still others were talking of the futility of going to vote. (By the way, Dawn reports say that the turnout was barely 30 per cent in Karachi, while officials supervising the polls here said that the turnout was about 45 to 50 per cent. Interesting, baffling variation really.)
I don’t know what the PTV was saying on election day, but the channel surfing that I did on the eve of the local bodies polls, as well as on the day itself, all the news and current affairs shows referred to Karachi all the time. The treatment given by the media, and the updates on this city were unusual. And there was frequent reference to the law and order factor in this city, as if this was the only city in the country where election violence was possible, imminent.
Of course there were reasons why all that was being said. But then it is significant that while there have been incidents and bloodshed elsewhere in the country, Karachi has been so peaceful, low turnout or otherwise. Citizens have expressed their appreciation at the security measures that were taken to ensure that the city remains peaceful. They now hope that the system of local bodies will emerge stronger now.
Many Karachiites spent the election eve and the day itself indoors, watching the proceedings on television channels which brought home a variety of news reports, analyses and opinions, as well as the opportunity to hear Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad, Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, former city nazim Niamatullah Khan, former mayor Dr Farooq Sattar, Sindh ministers, opposition leaders, etc.
A word about the discussions that focused on Karachi. They certainly reflected the latitude that the electronic media has today which shows that the days of PTV and its stifling monopoly are over, forever. And in that media freedom was contained the concern about Karachi. Either direct or by implications, the participants talked about Karachiites’ fear with reference to the polls, and the results, and so on.
And I noticed that Governor Dr Ibad was carefully and confidently explaining the steps that had been taken to ensure peaceful polling. From what has happened, he has proved his point.
Now where does one go after, what is being described as, ‘by and large peaceful’ election in Karachi? Karachiites are by and large relieved, as the pundits talking of a possible bloodbath in the city have been proved wrong. It is time for a thanksgiving, of one kind or another. There is reason to contemplate the occasionally argued premise that a change of attitude is taking place in the urban centres of the country. A kind of tolerance is setting in, even though there appear to be extremists amongst. A moderate urban citizen is there, even though he is in a minority, says a colleague who himself is a veteran Karachiite.
It needs to be realized here that in the last four years of the local bodies system, a healthy tradition has been set. Niamatullah Khan and his team completed its term of office. One hopes that this healthy tradition flourishes in the future. The sustained efforts made by the team also need to be acknowledged and applauded.
If Karachiites now hope that this peaceful polling is a good omen for the future, it is only understandable. If they hope that the gesture of Dr Farooq Sattar to visit Jamaat-i-Islami office (Idara Noor-i-Haq) will augur well for the future, this too is understandable.
Karachi has suffered sustained setbacks in the past due to political divide as well. It is everybody’s hope that his family will live in peace after these local bodies polls, howsoever imperfect and flawed they may appear to be.
Independence Day highs and lows
President Musharraf used the occasion to urge the people to reject what he called “retrogressive elements” and vote instead for those having a progressive bent of mind. He was referring to the local elections, the first phase of which was completed in the country’s 53 districts on Thursday. There is not a soul in the country who would disagree with the president. Disagreements start when there is a difference of opinion over what is progressive and what is retrogressive bahaviour.
Recruiting people for Jihad against the infidels or opposing the global war against terrorism are not the only retrogressive aspects of our socio-political life, just as expelling foreign religious students or packing the legislatures with women MPs are not the only signs of being progressive. Nor is the recipe for managed democracy — ostensibly to keep the Mullahs from running everyone else over — a very progressive way of running the affairs of the country in the long run.
The occasion was also chosen to put the blame of Pakistan’s existing woes — of which the country’s image problem at the world stage preoccupies the minds of those in power — on former rulers, as if the present government was the best thing that ever happened to the country. But Pakistanis, according to Justice Javid Iqbal, have always been a moderate, enlightened, and one may add, a stoic lot. Perhaps that is why it is hard for them to fathom the blames successive governments have laid on the shoulders of their predecessors.
It is these contradictions, more than anything else, that need to be removed to improve the image of the country abroad as well as that of the present government at home. If the relatively secular lot that came to power between Gen Zia’s military rule and the current dispensation comprised bad and corrupt people, many of whom are part of the ruling elite even today, then it was natural that a third, Islamist, force should have emerged. But there are many who would argue that the MMA’s emergence two-and-a-half years ago, and now its retreat, were phenomena forced from above.
Political experimentation, unfortunately, is the only thing that has remained a constant feature in the nation’s 58 years of existence. But one must thank Gen Musharraf for resurrecting the Qauid’s motto of ‘Unity, Faith, Discipline’ in its original form. Remember, Gen Zia had official records changed and history books rewritten in order to put ‘Faith’ before ‘Unity’ and Discipline’?
INDEPENDENCE Day celebrations this year, again, claimed several lives, six of them in Lahore. The total toll in Punjab was 16, as reported. Most of the dead were adolescent boys and young men doing ‘one-wheeling’ on motorbikes or simply speeding cars. The practice has come to be associated with Aug 14 as much as flying kites with razor-sharp strings with Basant. Both have time and again proved to be fatal, often self-destructive pastimes.
This Independence Day, two other young men in Lahore also chose to assert their freedom: they took their own lives. The families of both cited bad economics and rising inflation as reasons. While deaths by kite string or rash driving can be curbed by exercising stricter parental control, the growing number of suicides for economic reasons needs state intervention. But what hope for the latter when the prime minister chooses the occasion to congratulate the nation on the great benchmarks his government has achieved in the economic sphere in the last two years?
It is this denial of reality that makes the economically deprived feel hopeless to the point where, as a last resort, they put themselves out of misery. But what else can one expect the PM to say? As a colleague commented the other day, ‘his tie used to cost $20 five years ago; it still costs the same’.
POLICE took into custody the parents of some 30 underage camel jockeys who were repatriated to Lahore from Dubai this week. They were booked for illegally smuggling their children out of the country and giving them in virtual bondage abroad. Under the Human Trafficking Ordinance of 2002, the crime carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison.
The Punjab government’s Child Protection and Welfare Bureau has done a good job with the rescued child jockeys who have been pouring into the city in small batches for two months now. Most of the boys, aged between four and 12, want to go back to their parents. But in many cases, the ‘parents’ who sent the boys abroad and collected their salaries, are actually foster parents who had bought the children from their real parents at an early age. The bureau rightly refuses to hand over such children back to these foster parents, and it was largely this bunch that was booked by the police.
Poverty in the first instance of parents selling their children to middlemen may be the primary reason for the perpetuation of the crime against the child. But the bureau’s psychiatrists who have worked closely with such impoverished parents say that poverty alone is not what drives parents to sell their children. Shockingly enough, pure greed is another common factor. Many parents confessed to having sold their sons just because they wanted a number of consumer products.
THE light rail transit project for Lahore is once again being talked about in official circles. The grand plan has been brought back on to the drawing board, with the Punjab government claiming that a number of Chinese and Japanese firms are interested in financing, building and operating the project. This is nothing new; we have been hearing that since the early 1990s. It is time the government stopped making light of the light rail and got on with the project. —OBSERVER