Karachi Bleeds. Again.

What I am posting about today is happening NOW. This isn’t one of my silly, nostalgic, much-ado-about-nothing postings. This is real, current and serious.

So the brother left this morning; he’s gone home for eight weeks or so to work in the desert on some engineering thing. I don’t know the details. Anyway, he’ll be landing at Quaid-e-Azam International Airport in Karachi some time Sunday morning. Whether or not he gets beyond the airport remains to be seen.

You are probably aware, if you have eyes and an internet connection, of the current situation in Karachi. If you are not (and best you not tell me if you aren’t), let me provide some context and background.

Early March, dear President Musharraf removes the Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Chaudhry on some “misuse of power” charge that no one can explain. Lawyers angry. The President has overstepped his bounds again. Protests. Support for Justice Chaudhry grows exponentially. Now for some reason, the gentleman decides that he needs to attend rallies in his support and become the poster boy for Pakistan’s constitution. Fine. Except this goes to anger the government. So, a quick recap. Judge rallying. Government angry.

Now, this weekend dear Justice ventures Karachi-ward. “I must show my face to my darling supporters in the port city as well.” The day of this rally (Saturday, May 12th 2007) dawned with the provincial government warning him to stay away for fear of violence. In true “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” fashion, Pakistan’s opposition parties decided to support Chaudhry and decry Musharraf. The MQM, the group of thugs that has been trying to run Karachi for the past 20 years, found itself in the same corner as Musharraf in this case and decided to stop any silly Chief Justice rally before it started.

Several hundred opposition party political activists were arrested on Friday night; interestingly, not one from the MQM. Overnight roadblocks appeared on city streets. Major thoroughfares were shut down. Shops and offices remained closed. Gunfights broke out. Cars and buses were burned. Journalists were shot. TV channels were threatened with dire consequences for broadcasting the truth. The MQM was showing its might. And the opposition could not bear this affront to its manhood. They had to fight back. Sweet, angelic Justice Chaudhry was stranded at the airport when he arrived. There was no way for him to enter the city. All this while, in the name of power, people died. One hundred wounded. Twenty seven not going home again. And the numbers continue to rise.

Let’s face it. The MQM needs to go. Now. They are what the IRA is to Northern Ireland, what ETA is to Spain and what the Tamil Tigers are to Sri Lanka. Terrorists. All they have done for our city in the past twenty years is call strikes, hold rallies, kill people, burn buses and extinguish hope. Some of our family members live in MQM controlled parts of the city. One year, on the occasion of Independence Day (August 14th), they had decorated their house with Pakistan flags (below).



A few hours later, MQM “representatives” showed up and demanded they replace the crescent-and-starred green and white (above) with the red, green and white of MQM (below).



Really patriotic, these thugs are.

And President Musharraf. If ever there was a disappointment, he is one. Eight years ago we thought we finally had a man with morals and principles to lead us.
No more power hungry dictators with God complexes.
No more bureaucracy and nepotism.
No more corruption.
No more fundamentalism.
No more power and water shortages.
No more of the elite stuffing their pockets while the common folk suffer.
Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

He started out well, like so many of them do.
Pledges to improve Pakistan’s image abroad he delivered on to an extent.
But then he became President. Chief Executive wasn’t permanent enough I suppose.
And rigged elections so that the man who would listen to him would become Prime Minister. Shaukat Aziz, you pliable little ball of plasticine, you.
And he was cowed by the mullahs. What is so scary about those damn beards, anyway?
And he dismissed those who disagreed with him and his views. Such as the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

I hate to say it.
Pervez Musharraf has become George W. Bush.
Naively blind to his many faults.
Strangely content to ignore important issues.
Blatantly primitive in enforcing his will.
And bafflingly ignorant when it comes to the good of his people.

I’d say he needs to go. Now. But there is no one to take his place. Incredible as it may sound, he’s probably still the best of a bad lot. And that means my city, not to mention my country, is in big big trouble.

Right here, right now, there are no answers.