بوٹوں کی چاپ ...؟؟؟
بوٹوں کی چاپ ...؟؟؟
- Thread starter maksyed
- Start date
canadian
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
Smashing the conspiracy of silence
Ayaz Amir
The News, Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Didn’t we all know what was wrong with Karachi? Weren’t we familiar
with the cult of violence devouring the city? Extortion in Urdu has an
expressive equivalent: ‘bhatha’. Didn’t we all know who the greatest
collectors of ‘bhatha’ were?
But while this knowledge was inscribed on the tablets of our minds, it
was knowledge that dared not speak its name. For the consequences of
speaking out were swift and terrible: a bullet in the neck, if you
were lucky; drill machines and your shroud in the form of a gunny bag
if you were out of luck. We were so brave about exercising our freedom
of expression when it came to the sins of politicians, the unholy role
of generals and the ISI, Pervez Musharraf’s many transgressions.
But something happened to our courage when it came to Karachi. Our
admirable attachment to freedom of expression lost its sting, intrepid
anchors lost the use of their tongues, newspaper editors became
paragons of moderation, choosing discretion over valour.
So all of us – analysts, certified patriots, screeching politicos –
spoke of Karachi in a circular manner, never saying anything directly.
Karachi taught us to be masters of the roundabout phrase.
This literary expertise, this gift for indirect speech, had unforeseen
consequences. Terrible as the violence was, the conspiracy of silence
was in a way far worse for it imprisoned our minds. And the killers
enjoyed a free hand because no one was willing to name them. They
spread a pall of fear over the city, especially its less favoured
parts where their hegemony was unchallenged, and made a thriving
business of collecting extortion money...doing so with impunity, their
writ uncontested, because there was no one to name them, far be it
from anyone to nab them.
Until, that is, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza’s bombshell news conference. This
was not just political theatre, although it was this too, but
something much more, something far bigger: an event to change, perhaps
dramatically alter, things as they were. The status quo has been
attacked. The conspiracy of silence and lies has been rudely
shattered. The truth we always knew but now it is not only out, it
lies exposed. A name, finally, has been given to the spectre haunting
Karachi. The age of equivocations, of dodging around the truth, is
over. Nothing can be the same again.
The MQM is shell-shocked, as it has every right to be. The allegations
against it, backed by chapter and verse and some documents, were
virtually on oath, Mirza with a hand on the Quran throughout his tour
de force, at times holding the holy book to his head. It was a bravura
performance during which Mirza, to my surprise I must say, was never
at a loss for words. Occasionally, he was also devastatingly funny, as
when he dilated upon Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s steady adherence
to the unvarnished truth.
Naming MQM killers, holding the MQM responsible for the killing of the
journalist Wali Babar – again naming names – referring to the recent
attack on a police van in which many policemen were killed and again
accusing the MQM for this. Accusing the MQM of being behind the
killing of its own former leader Imran Farooq, and saying that in 2001
Altaf Hussain had written to then British prime minister Tony Blair
offering to organise pro-western demonstrations in Karachi and
elsewhere and calling upon the West to help disband the ISI lest it
produce more Osama bin Ladens – to characterise these charges as
explosive would be the under-statement of the century.
When was the last time such a thing happened? That too before a rapt
nation-wide audience, hanging on to his every word and scarcely
believing the evidence of its ears.
But there was also enough dynamite to shake the Presidency. For an
attack on Rehman Malik is an attack on President Asif Zardari, Malik’s
ultimate protector. Malik is a Zardari creature, owing everything to
him, being of no account in political terms on his own. If Mirza says
that if anything happens to Pakistan, Malik will be responsible,
Zardari indirectly is also touched by the accusation. As he is by
Mirza’s no-holds-barred attacks on the MQM, for who is the
master-architect of the alliance with the MQM? President Zardari.
Remember also that Mirza’s language, his tone, are not his alone. He
has touched a chord, and a burning one at that, expressive of
sentiments passionately shared across the length and breadth of rural
Sindh, including amongst the PPP’s own power-base. He can be
excommunicated from the PPP but his views are not easily ignored.
Mirza has not so much thrown down the gauntlet as exposed the
Republic’s nakedness in Karachi, the lies fuelling the bonfire of
violence consuming the city. Like it or not, this is a call for
action. If his charges are not refuted, if the names he has named are
not denied, the government comes under a responsibility to act. But
will it?
It is a safe bet that Zardari, a master of masterly inactivity, his
forte presiding over a state of paralysis and construing it as
cleverness, will do nothing. He will be hoping that like previous
storms, this one too will pass. His instinct will be to preserve the
alliance with the MQM even if the cup of popular cynicism boils over.
This approach might work in normal times but after Mirza’s fireworks
we are beyond the politics of the routine. This is different. The ball
has already been flung into other courts.
The Supreme Court, reduced to a state of helplessness by the
government’s stonewalling on a range of issues, has at last found a
cause, the situation in Karachi, worthy of its suo moto consideration.
It will be strange if Mirza is not called upon to testify and if and
when he does it will become the responsibility of the Supreme Court to
act, to issue clear directions, on the information he imparts.
Two great issues, overshadowing others, threaten Pakistan’s peace and
security: religious extremism and the Taliban threat from the
north-west; and the politics of extortion and blackmail in
Karachi...theocratic violence on one side, and secular violence on the
other. The Supreme Court has now an unrivalled opportunity to address
the second of these two issues.
There is a tide in the affairs of men...there’s one in the affairs of
the Supreme Court and it has to be seen whether it takes it at the
flood or allows this opportunity, not likely to return soon, to slip
through its fingers.
And, pray, what about the guardians? Mirza’s recklessness was
controlled and well-directed. While he did not spare his chosen
targets, Malik and the MQM, he was most judicious in his references to
the army and ISI, going so far as to give a certificate of preserving
the country to the latter. This points to intriguing possibilities.
Zardari will not act, we can be sure of this, and Malik will continue
to play his smooth games. But what is turning in the mind of My Lord
the Chief Justice and what cue from his labours will the long-eyed men
in General Headquarters take? Let no one say we don’t live in
interesting times.
The lawyers’ movement broke the Musharraf status quo. For seven-and-a
half years – Oct 99 to Mar 2007 – nothing was happening, Musharraf’s
armour impervious to any assault. Then, out of the blue, he committed
his famous faux pas with the chief justice and nothing was the same
again (and to think that Pakistan’s lawyers, minor instruments of
history, were to reduce themselves to showering rose petals on
Taseer’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri... this is to trace a path from the
sublime to the revolting).
Mirza’s thunderbolt has shaken the Zardari status quo, its impact
greater than the confines of Karachi. For three and a half years
nothing was happening, nothing sticking to Zardari’s Teflon armour.
Now this.
To echo Ghalib, no hand is on the reins and no foot in the
stirrups...where the galloping steed comes to rest let us see. Dr
Zulfiqar Mirza has entered where angels would fear to tread. Where
this leads to we don’t know. But at long last the elements of change
have been set in motion.
Email: [email protected]
Ayaz Amir
The News, Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Didn’t we all know what was wrong with Karachi? Weren’t we familiar
with the cult of violence devouring the city? Extortion in Urdu has an
expressive equivalent: ‘bhatha’. Didn’t we all know who the greatest
collectors of ‘bhatha’ were?
But while this knowledge was inscribed on the tablets of our minds, it
was knowledge that dared not speak its name. For the consequences of
speaking out were swift and terrible: a bullet in the neck, if you
were lucky; drill machines and your shroud in the form of a gunny bag
if you were out of luck. We were so brave about exercising our freedom
of expression when it came to the sins of politicians, the unholy role
of generals and the ISI, Pervez Musharraf’s many transgressions.
But something happened to our courage when it came to Karachi. Our
admirable attachment to freedom of expression lost its sting, intrepid
anchors lost the use of their tongues, newspaper editors became
paragons of moderation, choosing discretion over valour.
So all of us – analysts, certified patriots, screeching politicos –
spoke of Karachi in a circular manner, never saying anything directly.
Karachi taught us to be masters of the roundabout phrase.
This literary expertise, this gift for indirect speech, had unforeseen
consequences. Terrible as the violence was, the conspiracy of silence
was in a way far worse for it imprisoned our minds. And the killers
enjoyed a free hand because no one was willing to name them. They
spread a pall of fear over the city, especially its less favoured
parts where their hegemony was unchallenged, and made a thriving
business of collecting extortion money...doing so with impunity, their
writ uncontested, because there was no one to name them, far be it
from anyone to nab them.
Until, that is, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza’s bombshell news conference. This
was not just political theatre, although it was this too, but
something much more, something far bigger: an event to change, perhaps
dramatically alter, things as they were. The status quo has been
attacked. The conspiracy of silence and lies has been rudely
shattered. The truth we always knew but now it is not only out, it
lies exposed. A name, finally, has been given to the spectre haunting
Karachi. The age of equivocations, of dodging around the truth, is
over. Nothing can be the same again.
The MQM is shell-shocked, as it has every right to be. The allegations
against it, backed by chapter and verse and some documents, were
virtually on oath, Mirza with a hand on the Quran throughout his tour
de force, at times holding the holy book to his head. It was a bravura
performance during which Mirza, to my surprise I must say, was never
at a loss for words. Occasionally, he was also devastatingly funny, as
when he dilated upon Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s steady adherence
to the unvarnished truth.
Naming MQM killers, holding the MQM responsible for the killing of the
journalist Wali Babar – again naming names – referring to the recent
attack on a police van in which many policemen were killed and again
accusing the MQM for this. Accusing the MQM of being behind the
killing of its own former leader Imran Farooq, and saying that in 2001
Altaf Hussain had written to then British prime minister Tony Blair
offering to organise pro-western demonstrations in Karachi and
elsewhere and calling upon the West to help disband the ISI lest it
produce more Osama bin Ladens – to characterise these charges as
explosive would be the under-statement of the century.
When was the last time such a thing happened? That too before a rapt
nation-wide audience, hanging on to his every word and scarcely
believing the evidence of its ears.
But there was also enough dynamite to shake the Presidency. For an
attack on Rehman Malik is an attack on President Asif Zardari, Malik’s
ultimate protector. Malik is a Zardari creature, owing everything to
him, being of no account in political terms on his own. If Mirza says
that if anything happens to Pakistan, Malik will be responsible,
Zardari indirectly is also touched by the accusation. As he is by
Mirza’s no-holds-barred attacks on the MQM, for who is the
master-architect of the alliance with the MQM? President Zardari.
Remember also that Mirza’s language, his tone, are not his alone. He
has touched a chord, and a burning one at that, expressive of
sentiments passionately shared across the length and breadth of rural
Sindh, including amongst the PPP’s own power-base. He can be
excommunicated from the PPP but his views are not easily ignored.
Mirza has not so much thrown down the gauntlet as exposed the
Republic’s nakedness in Karachi, the lies fuelling the bonfire of
violence consuming the city. Like it or not, this is a call for
action. If his charges are not refuted, if the names he has named are
not denied, the government comes under a responsibility to act. But
will it?
It is a safe bet that Zardari, a master of masterly inactivity, his
forte presiding over a state of paralysis and construing it as
cleverness, will do nothing. He will be hoping that like previous
storms, this one too will pass. His instinct will be to preserve the
alliance with the MQM even if the cup of popular cynicism boils over.
This approach might work in normal times but after Mirza’s fireworks
we are beyond the politics of the routine. This is different. The ball
has already been flung into other courts.
The Supreme Court, reduced to a state of helplessness by the
government’s stonewalling on a range of issues, has at last found a
cause, the situation in Karachi, worthy of its suo moto consideration.
It will be strange if Mirza is not called upon to testify and if and
when he does it will become the responsibility of the Supreme Court to
act, to issue clear directions, on the information he imparts.
Two great issues, overshadowing others, threaten Pakistan’s peace and
security: religious extremism and the Taliban threat from the
north-west; and the politics of extortion and blackmail in
Karachi...theocratic violence on one side, and secular violence on the
other. The Supreme Court has now an unrivalled opportunity to address
the second of these two issues.
There is a tide in the affairs of men...there’s one in the affairs of
the Supreme Court and it has to be seen whether it takes it at the
flood or allows this opportunity, not likely to return soon, to slip
through its fingers.
And, pray, what about the guardians? Mirza’s recklessness was
controlled and well-directed. While he did not spare his chosen
targets, Malik and the MQM, he was most judicious in his references to
the army and ISI, going so far as to give a certificate of preserving
the country to the latter. This points to intriguing possibilities.
Zardari will not act, we can be sure of this, and Malik will continue
to play his smooth games. But what is turning in the mind of My Lord
the Chief Justice and what cue from his labours will the long-eyed men
in General Headquarters take? Let no one say we don’t live in
interesting times.
The lawyers’ movement broke the Musharraf status quo. For seven-and-a
half years – Oct 99 to Mar 2007 – nothing was happening, Musharraf’s
armour impervious to any assault. Then, out of the blue, he committed
his famous faux pas with the chief justice and nothing was the same
again (and to think that Pakistan’s lawyers, minor instruments of
history, were to reduce themselves to showering rose petals on
Taseer’s killer, Mumtaz Qadri... this is to trace a path from the
sublime to the revolting).
Mirza’s thunderbolt has shaken the Zardari status quo, its impact
greater than the confines of Karachi. For three and a half years
nothing was happening, nothing sticking to Zardari’s Teflon armour.
Now this.
To echo Ghalib, no hand is on the reins and no foot in the
stirrups...where the galloping steed comes to rest let us see. Dr
Zulfiqar Mirza has entered where angels would fear to tread. Where
this leads to we don’t know. But at long last the elements of change
have been set in motion.
Email: [email protected]
canadian
Chief Minister (5k+ posts)
I can see both boots and ants !
maksyed
Siasat.pk - Blogger
i can see both of them ....
Wadaich
Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
(hmm) let us hope for the best know.
