Rule in Sindh – The First Few Weeks
A cross section of the citizens of the city were invited by the Governor to get their reaction as to (1) the promulgation of Governor’s Rule and (2) how to make it effective. All the 20 odd or so people assembled in that room spoke for the imposition of Governor’s Rule, they lauded the Federal Government.
The other day the Governor Sindh, Lt Gen (Retd) Moinuddin Haider, invited at short notice Government for taking the bold step and “saving the city”. As regards making the rule effective, a few did counsel focussing on macro issues but the majority were more concerned with micro issues. The Governor cannot do everything, he has to conserve his energies and authority. This is possible by concentrating on the macro factors in order to re-build the institutions that have been destroyed over the past several years, at least to the level of their original potential.
Streets of Fire
Where there is smoke there is bound to be a fire and since Third World-ers are great conspiracy theorists, they tend to believe that smoke is meant only as a camouflage for the perpetrators of the fire. In Karachi this fire is burning fiercely in the streets. For those who have lived in hope that somehow they will be passed by there is bad news, the spreading conflagration is cutting a wide swath across class and creed, sect and ethnicity, etc. There is no convenient fire-escape from this developing inferno, by their benign inaction the Federal Government is seen to be a part of the problem rather than a “fire brigade” dedicated to the rescue of the city’s hapless inhabitants.
Instead of addressing the core issues that have brought Karachi to the verge of absolute anarchy, Ms Benazir seems to skirt the major problems. The general public perception is that there are no solutions on offer because the logical ones tend to threaten PPP’s electoral power base in Sindh. When faced with such Hobson’s choice, Government of Pakistan (GoP) invariably tends to take the easy route of rhetoric, contributing to the PM’s rapidly declining credibility. Hard to believe that this is the same South-Asian vintage Joan of Arc of the 80s decade, holding forth the torch of democracy for the people of Pakistan. Regretfully, the PM is giving the word “obfuscation” due legitimacy much beyond what is generally attributed to bureaucracy.
The Price of Conscience
No amount of praise can really describe the courageous, untiring and dedicated efforts of the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) in their crusade to restore law and order in the city of Karachi. Recognition was overdue for the two CPLC stalwarts (and guiding force) Nazim Haji and Jameel Yousuf, it was duly given in the Presidential Investiture Ceremony at Islamabad on Republic Day this year. Risking life and limb on a purely voluntary basis, bearding bureaucracy in its den while braving the wrath of the corrupt among the law enforcement agencies on the one hand and the lawless on the other, the CPLC has restored the confidence of society in the fast disappearing human qualities of selflessness, sacrifice and community service. For the CPLC’s two leading persons and their families, an unlimited threat perception around the clock is a constant reminder that conscience has a price, the unending risk is a heavy cross they have to bear for the purposes of ridding those from society who had become its scourge. One of the finest experiments attempted in the realm of sustenance of moral values, that the CPLC has succeeded beyond the imagination of its pioneering founders gives hope to our endangered society. We may be at the edge of the Rubicon, the will of the people will always be stronger than the machinations of evil.
One incident graphically illustrates the present stress and strain on society, it reveals the centrifugal forces acting to dismember the mores of civilization as we know it and condemn it to the dust heap. Evidencing from the confessions of a major criminal involved in the organised lifting of cars in Karachi and their disposal thereof in other provinces, some leading politicians and high ranking officials stood implicated. The news item was staggering in content, if untrue it could not be more libellous or defamatory. If it was concocted it was incumbent upon the Government to nail down the source and subject those responsible for its initiation to severe punishment pro-rata to the very crimes they had accused the various personages of. After all it cast aspersion on the character and integrity on the supposed guardians of the law, smearing the pillars of our society who are primarily responsible to uphold and maintain sanctity thereof. It chronicled an evil that should be the domain of hardened criminals, how could it ever be a factual account of these privileged to function in the name of justice? In the hands of criminals, the rendering of justice becomes a crime. The reaction of the Federal Government was surprising, it preferred to shroud the issue in a veiled cloak.