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Friday, January 11, 2008
Burhanuddin Hasan
Soon after Ms Bhutto fell victim to an assassin's bullet in Rawalpindi, the entire country particularly Sindh plunged into the worst rioting, looting and burning of banks, shops, cars and even trains which crippled life throughout Sindh. According to news reports 53 people were killed, and 185 banks branches, 40 petrol pumps, 27 railway stations, 72 trains and 802 shops, and many polling offices were burned down. Markets remained closed and millions of people suffered for lack of groceries and other items of daily use. According to an estimate the country suffered a loss of about 100 billion rupees.
This was carnage of major proportions, which woefully went unnoticed by the Sindh government. Armed gangs of ruffians were roaming the streets of Karachi, Hyderabad and other cities, but Rangers, Police and all other law enforcing agencies were either absent or stood as silent spectators and did not take any effective measure to control the mobs which were playing havoc on the streets. President Musharraf has set up a commission to investigate and identify those responsible for incidents of arson and looting, causing loss of billions of rupees to banks industry and private property. Well and good, but one does not need a commission to find out why law enforcing agencies did not take action as the carnage was taking place and people were killed and their properties were burnt in front of their eyes. There is need for immediate disciplinary action against the provincial government and heads of Police and Rangers for this monumental lapse and dereliction of duty. In fact the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and industry has rightly demanded removal of top Police officials and Rangers who failed to maintain peace in the city. The chamber warned that if the law enforcement hierarchy was not changed within a week, the KCCI could give a call for a strike. The Sindh government had failed completely to maintain law and order. As mobs ruled the streets in several areas of Karachi, Police and Rangers were nowhere to be seen. Troops were on standby in the cantonment but the caretaker government did not bother to seek their help.
As a result of disturbances, price of wheat flour hit an all time high of Rs. 25 per kilo. Atta has also become scarce and people are waiting in long queues at utility stores to get a few kilos of their staple food. Other items of every days use such as "dals", vegetables and fruit have also become so expensive that they are beyond the reach of the common man. There is also great scarcity of electric power as serious energy crises has gripped the country, due to heavy load shedding. The life of the common man has become unbearable, but how ironic the government party still hopes that people will vote for it in the coming elections. The fact is that if the caretaker governments at the centre and provinces do not take immediate action to improve the supply of atta and other food items and bring their prices down to a manageable level for the consumers, the Muslim League-Q can not win the elections. And if they do, people will know they are rigged. Likewise, people do not believe the government's version of the cause of death of Ms Benazir Bhutto which will play a major role in the elections. The government therefore, needs to expedite the Scotland Yard enquiry to pave the way for fair, transparent and peaceful elections. The caretaker governments do not seem to be competent to meet this great challenge which if not met satisfactorily it may plunge the nation into terrorism of massive proportions.
Let us look at what has happened in Kenya and learn a lesson. Immediately after polls when the sitting president Mwai Kibaki claimed victory in election, against projections in the media in favour of opposition leader Raila Odinga, riots broke out leaving hundreds of people killed for far. President Mwai Kibaki's narrow re-election victory and his swearing in sparked violence across the country much of it along tribal lines, with tit-for-tat killings and targeted arson attacks. Kibaki belongs to Kenya's largest tribe, the Kikuyu, and his defeated opposition challenger, Raila Odinga, to the second largest, the Luo.
Kenya, which was comparatively a stable country in East Africa, is now on the verge of civil war. Observers say if urgent steps are not taken to arrest the killings, Kenya is bound to sink into the abyss and join the ranks of war-torn countries like, Somalia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and others, which have experienced genocide on an unimaginable scale. Pakistan also has big and small provinces; some having strong tribal culture. Our voting pattern also reflects provincial and tribal bias. It is therefore of utmost importance to take all necessary measures to control this bias as much as possible. The leaders of political parties must carefully avoid any references to provincialism or ethnicism in their speeches and statements and lay emphasis on greater autonomy for smaller and less developed provinces.
We lost East Pakistan because the federal governments were not willing to grant Bengalis, who were in majority, full autonomy in their internal affairs which was promised to them in the Pakistan Resolution. The country is in almost in same perilous situation which existed in 1971. Growing terrorism in the northern areas as well as the tribal belt is posing a serious threat to the country's stability and solidarity. The present divisive approach of some political leaders, may lead to civil strife. The need of the hour is to adopt a broad national approach for the welfare of all federating units.
It is gratifying that the government has constituted a commission to assess damages/losses caused to ordinary citizens during the recent disturbances. The commission, to be headed by a senior bureaucrat UAG Isani, would have representatives from the respective home departments, inspector generals of police and members of revenue department. The commission has been asked to submit its report in a month.
One can only hope that the commission will fulfill its responsibilities well in time and award compensation to the affected people.
The writer is a former director of PTV Email: burhanhasan@hotmail.com
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