THE local bodies, grass roots or what have you, elections have been looming over our lives for months. It was as if we were on a war footing, with warnings of bloodbaths to come, of the army being called out in cases of ‘law and order deterioration’ (not that there is much law and order around to deteriorate).
An August 17 news report said that the DIG Ops, Karachi, had briefed newspersons that if the situation so demands, the decision to order the police to ‘open fire’ would be taken. As it is, reportedly 40,000 troops were at the ready to move in if summoned.
The bloodbath prediction applied to our volatile, contentious, divided and overcrowded city of Karachi, highly prone to sudden and sporadic violence. But the ruling party and its street-wise coalition partner had it all in control.
Admittedly, this is only Round One, but there were no killings reported in Karachi — the interior of Sindh did have its share of injuries and of bully-boy tactics what with irrigation water cut-off in selected areas.
Whatever blood was shed was in the ruling province, under the firm control of the powerful Chaudhry clan of Gujrat, in the mullah-controlled Frontier Province and in neglected step-child Balochistan. The total deaths on the polling day so far reported from the three provinces are 13, though by now some of the injured may well have moved on, and there have been some dozen deaths caused by what is known as ‘post-poll violence’.
The electronic media has been — and remains, one supposes, until Round Two has come and gone — cluttered with ‘talk shows’, the usual entertainers being rounded up and for once allowed to air their views live, for hours on end, on the verbal battlefield. When all is over one realizes that actually no one has said anything that has not been said before on occasion after occasion.
Mud and muck are slung, one-track minds take over, sense is suspended, with minds not engaging in gear before mouths are opened. My turn came on ARY One on election eve.
On my left was seated Naimatullah Khan of the Jamaat, our former City Nazim, on my right sat Waseem Akhtar of the MQM, a provincial minister of sorts. The Jamaat, by its very nature, is an obscurantist party, at one time militant, until overtaken by the more militant and numerous MQM. Opposite sat Pipian Taj Haider, who, to his credit, does not dye his glowing gray hair, and the same goes for chief of his one-man party Awami Tehrik, Rasul Bux Palijo, who sat next to him. The third on the bench was a burly PML-Q Youth (he looked at least 50) leader with an equally burly handlebar moustache.
Naimatullah and Waseem were armed with bundles of papers outlining the substantial allegations, the usual, of each against the other. All I could really contribute was my view that the whole ballot box ballyhoo was an exercise in futility. President General Pervez Musharraf had ordered that the MQM be given control of Karachi and that his Q party prevail in Sindh, and of course in the ruling province.
His word being law, that is what would happen, so what on earth was the point of discussing it all? Taj was all for resistance, Palijo was obsessed with the question of dam building and the lack of agricultural water, the youth leader spoke in high-flown Urdu, much of which, to my regret, went over my head. It was all very tedious and difficult to comprehend as they all insisted on speaking at the same time — sorry, I mean shouting at the same time, at each other and at the bemused compere.
The highlight of the evening was the raising of Altaf Bhai of London Town, proud citizen of Britain, who gave us a rant and a rave over the telephone line.
Does this country, in its present state of confusion and unease, need elections? In fact, has it ever needed elections? Not one election in the history of this country has been, as is always hailed, ‘free and fair’ — the closest was that of 1970 but that turned out to be a disaster which led to the loss of half the country. Not one election has ever provided any solution to any problem. All they have done is to usher in added confusion, dissent, corruption, lawlessness, and calamity.
How are these union council elections going to help the people? What is their role in President Musharraf’s poverty alleviation scheme? The answer is simple — they are irrelevant to the common man, and to you and I. They are all about money allied to power, the two political twins which define democracy as practised in the state of Pakistan.
Does this country need all this agro? As it is, our reputation as the prime breeding ground for terrorists of all nationalities shines brightly in the outside world. Aggression feeds on an aggression-charged atmosphere and normal behaviour is thrown to the winds. People who, under normal circumstances, would behave differently resort to violence at the slightest provocation.
Two cars have a minor collision at one of the many dangerous corners and crossings in Karachi — minor meaning that two bumpers met at a low speed — the drivers leap out and threaten to beat each other up, both being faultless. An old widower, living alone, has words with an outside caterer who has provided him with his meals for years. The enraged caterer, for no rhyme or reason, slits the old man’s throat. But life goes on. The day after the polls I was contacted by Nir Rosen of the New York Times Sunday Magazine. His mission in Pakistan was to cover the local body elections — what a waste of time, energy and money. When he was in Quetta, he received an anonymous call suggesting that he leave Quetta or suffer the same fate as Daniel Pearl. He flew to Karachi, to see what he could see and hear what he could hear. He was followed around by two carloads of plain clothes men. They waited patiently outside my gate while we had dinner.
We strive to survive!
E-mail: arfc@cyber.net.pk