Opinion Karachi,the sequel

The media too are insensitive. The kind of extensive coverage given to the outburst of the firebrand Mirza was excessive to say the least. (This week Mirza,a senior Sindh PPP leader in the provincial government,quit his government and party posts with a tirade against the federal interior minister,Rehman Malik,and MQM chief Altaf Husain for their alleged role in the ongoing violence.) Those appearing as analysts on popular national TV channels,and trying to make sense of what Mirza said and where do we go from here,tell another tale. Few,if any,of the analysts holding forth on the issues confronting Karachi are from Karachi. The bulk of the analysts are Punjab-based,and thus offer only bookish analyses. Is Karachi intellectually that poor? Why can’t someone find the right people,scholars,intellectuals and analysts from this city to have a say on TV about Karachi’s problems?

The answer partly lies in the fear factor. The people of Karachi have learnt to be on the mute mode because of the sheer violence around them,of which they too can become a target if they dare speak their minds freely. That’s why Zulfiqar Mirza stands out. He’s the only whistleblower,though he tells half-truths,by targeting his opponents only,whether they are in the MQM or in his own PPP.

But this time round,Mirza has laid all bare — facts that he was privy to whilst being a senior provincial minister and Sindh’s home minister before that. The debate is now out in the open like it has never been before. The government and its intelligence agencies will have to answer the questions posed by Mirza and the allegations he has hurled at the MQM. Yet only a chorus of dissociation from Mirza’s remarks has followed from the presidency,where Zardari had a hurriedly arranged tête-à-tête with his party colleagues from Sindh. This is not enough.

And here’s why. Mirza has by implication accused the president,the prime minister and the Sindh PPP administration of not only turning a blind eye to what he called the MQM’s rule of terror in Karachi but of protecting the killers and looters backed by the MQM even though,according to him,the government has ample proof to convict such outlaws. He has also indirectly accused the army and the ISI,which he says are very much in the know of who’s doing what in Karachi,of being complicit. No one has denied the allegations and accusations except for the MQM,but even that main accused party has stopped short of daring Mirza to take them to the cleaners,that is,the courts.

The timing of Mirza’s outburst is also curious. He spilled the beans on the eve of the Supreme Court’s special bench headed by the chief justice himself going into session in Karachi to examine the city’s precarious situation. Mirza has requested the court to call him for testimony,and it is almost certain that the request would be granted. For two days,on Monday and Tuesday,the court grilled the city’s police chief and the provincial administration,rubbishing their claims that they had a grip on the situation. Mirza is eagerly waiting in the wings,as it were,to be summoned any day now after the court has given the government a well-deserved dressing down.

Mirza’s contention,and much of it not without merit,is that everyone worth his position in power or the security apparatus is in the know on who is behind the killings in Karachi. Yet no one is willing to do anything about it. The only demerit in his assertion is that,to him,only the MQM is the culprit and the aggressor while the rest are its victims. This is far from the truth,as Mirza himself is accused by the MQM of running an extortion and land mafia and of backing the killers.

Given the sensitivities,the court too will have to tread very cautiously.

The writer is an editor with ‘Dawn’,Karachi
express@expressindia.com