Chowrangi

Few months back I was informed by someone that the City Government of Karachi is planning to convert the area from Tower till Metropole hotel into a downtown of highrise shopping centeres and hotels. At that time I took this with a laugh, thinking how it will be possible to move the business and trade centeres like the Bolton Market, Medicine Market, Printing Press businesses and others out of that area. However, observing what followed Karachi Ashura Blast, accompanied with statements from the government, I now suspect the impossible is going to happen.

Unfortunately both the PPP and MQM are infamous for land grabbing, by hook or by crook. In the recent past shanty towns in Karachi were gutted and re-used by others, public grounds handed over to Khidamat-e-Khalq Committee (a subsidiary of MQM), government plots illegally leased to favourites and people resisting such activities were murdered in cold blood.

After the Ashura blast, we have seen MQM’s CDGK and PPP’s Provincial government accusing each other for the failure in stopping the arsonsits from gutting public and state property. However, nobody has really taken the responsibility for now and as a matter of fact, may never will.

Shaheen Sehbai has a piece in today’s the News where he has recorded the interviews of Chief Secretary and Home Secretary of Sindh, that Mohammed Ahmed Noorani conducted after the Ashura blast. Interesting the senior officials of the “establishment” gave conflicting statements, one asking the home secretary to open fire, and the other saying that if one bullet was fired, there would have been a 10-fold loss

On the other hand, the Federal Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, told the business community at the FPCCI headquarters in Karachi, “The police and the Rangers do not know how to fire their guns. They have no training and the business community must contribute to a fund to provide training to these forces.”

Sehbai concludes that, These conflicting statements have not been able to convince the Karachi city leaders, especially the MQM, which is now very agitated and perturbed on being blamed for not putting out the fires while the PPP leadership is getting away with a massive security lapse and display of incompetence.

So who really was behind the Ashura blast and the arson that followed? Only time will tell.

Other posts by Kashif Aziz

• Taliban of Punjab Police - March 3rd, 2010
• Chile Earthquake, Hawaii Tsunami and Social Media - February 28th, 2010
• President Zardari apologized for childbirth in rickshaw - February 26th, 2010
• Reason of Traffic Jams in Karachi - February 19th, 2010
• Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Top Most Taliban Leader Caught in Karachi - February 16th, 2010
• PTCL Launches Largest Data Center of Pakistan - February 15th, 2010
• Reflections On Twin Blasts in Karachi - February 6th, 2010
• Aafia Siddiqui convicted, may be sentenced for 60 years - February 4th, 2010
• Dawn News going down the Drain? - January 30th, 2010
• Has Karachi Gone To Dogs? - January 27th, 2010