Karachi burns
While the anti-Islam (pro "enlightened moderate") puppet regime of Musharraf fiddles.The Chief Justice of Pakistan (that the puppet Musharraf dismissed) was to address the High Court Bar in Karachi. A major rally was planned by the opposition parties to welcome the Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.
Last week, the Chief Justice addressed a large rally in Lahore that was without any incident. The huge size of that rally, however, shook the puppet regime of Busharraf, and they decided that a similar rally would not be allowed to take place in Karachi.
The Karachi rally was blocked by the puppet regime's hired goons from the semi-fascist "political party" MQM - whose leader gives orders from London. The puppet regime's hired goons opened fire (using automatic, and semi-automatic weapons) on opposition rallies all over Karachi - resulting in over 30 dead, and hundreds injured. This is what democracy, American puppet style, looks like.
However: it is interesting to note that just a few weeks back the same semi-fascist party, MQM, held a rally against Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. But, at that time, the liberals remained quiet, thinking that MQM was on their side. Now that Busharraf's attack dogs have targeted everyone: liberals, religious groups, lawyers - one would think the liberal elite would come to their senses. But, if one is to read recent articles by the liberal elite commentators, they still don't seem to have learnt their lesson, and think that if they just replaced one "enlightened moderate" with another (maybe Benazir Bhutto - an American puppet in waiting) everything will be OK.
Fact is, if Pakistan, indeed any country in the region is to have any real independence - it has to first, and foremost, become independent of American style "roshan khiyalism" (enlightened thinking)- that might be better termed zalim khiyalism (oppressive/obscure thinking). And its so-called "leadership" needs to stop looking to the American State Department for stamps of approval.
posted by redwood at
5/12/2007 09:01:00 PM
4 comment(s):
By
Abu Turab, at
5/15/2007 01:47:00 AM
Im' surprised by how much support the MQM is getting in desi circles in the West.
really? must be MQM supporters (or "enlightened moderates")...all the folks I know hated them already, and much more so now...
By
malangbaba, at
5/15/2007 09:40:00 PM
More importantly, what can be done in response to the strong-armed tactics used by MQM?
By
Abu Turab, at
5/16/2007 11:03:00 PM
Their primary base has always been specific areas of Karachi. The issue that they capitalized upon was that the immigrants from India (muhajir) do not get equal representation. The background for this is that there are specific quotas (eg. government jobs, college admissions etc.) for each of the four major nationalities that make up Pakistan.
However, the immigrants from India, since they are not recognized as a nationality, they did not have any quotas allocated to them... as such they ended up being under-represented. The way they campaigned, based on ethnicity, however, led to all kinds of clashes with other groups that also live in Pakistan - specifically they had major clashes with people from NWFP (the frontier province) who come to Karachi looking for work.
Now, the question about what can be done - well there needs to be movements in Pakistan that go beyond narrow nationalistic concerns, and are based on all working people/class issues. At this point no such broad based movement exists - PPP at one time, had some folks who had such ideas - but they have long since sold out.
The major Islamic parties (that are electoral based) sound good, but are often only sound bites - and are tied in one way or the other to the conservative elites, who like their liberal counterparts don't really want to rock the boat.
Now, if something like Lal Masjid/Jamia Hafsa can expand their base, not get trapped in sectarianism, etc. That kind of move can become popular very quickly - and will dry up support for fraudulent groups like MQM.
Long term movement building along both Islamic and Social Democratic lines that can bring together some of the more ethical liberal types (such as the lawyers) is really the only long term solution that I see.
In the short term, I think, exposing groups like MQM for what they are, their bankrupt ideologies, and making it clear that such tactics are absolutely not acceptable is probably the way to go...
By
redwood, at
5/16/2007 11:48:00 PM
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