Following on from my previous post about the security operation in Lyari and the People's Aman Committee, I was back in Lyari yesterday. The PAC, for the meanwhile at least, feels completely betrayed by the PPP leadership. Asides from the politics, the PAC leaders kept on bringing up the issue of how the people of Lyari are treated like feudal peasants, even though there are no farmlands in the neighbourhood. How despite decades of support for the PPP, they only get jobs as 'peons' or drivers or security guards in the party.
This renewed feeling of bitterness was to some degree represented on the streets also -- though to be fair, I didn't get a chance to investigate whether this was universally felt in Lyari beyond the areas in the direct vicinity of PAC controlled buildings.
But representative of this feeling was a man on a street square who was writing a satirical poem about this betrayal by the PPP, post-operation. The poem is incomplete, but you can listen to what he had written so far, and read my very crude translation below. Written by Shahjahan Baloch.
From the House of Bilawal, some people will come Dressed as saviours, some torturers will come Disrespectful ministers, low-pedigree lords will come In the appearance of friends, enemies will come Some healers, some doctors will come In the name of medicine, they will bring poison They will bring greetings from a killer They will bring a message in Benazir's name They will come bearing a handful of gifts And leave with a sack full for themselves. They will celebrate, smile When they go back to the House of Bilawal. They will bring Bija Teer to the streets And then decorate the darkness of the night They will make their money and eat it themselves While they make us dance to Bija Teer Dila [Incomplete]
We're now into Day 7 of the police operation in Karachi's Lyari slum neighbourhood against "criminal elements", i.e. the People's Aman Committee. Maybe the craziest thing about it all is that this mini-war, involving RPGs and night-vision goggles, is taking place just a few minutes drive away from Karachi's central business district.
If you want to know about the different characters involved in the Lyari gang wars, this is a good overview (though it doesn't say who is claiming what). If you're intersted in knowing more about how it's about more than just crime, and the Aman Committee's involvement in social work, listen to my radio report from 2010.
But I've always had a soft spot for the Aman Committee. Let's be clear. The PAC has been accused of some pretty horrendous crimes, so I don't want it to sound as though I'm romanticizing about these gangsters. But I do admire their political awareness and the fact that they refuse to be mindless pawns of the PPP bigwigs. These are people who resent the feudal mindset of those within the PPP and are willing to stand up against them when push comes to shove.
It is similar to what I admire about the MQM as it was in its very early days. Middle and working class people who organized themselves and insisted on representing themselves, rather than be represented by those who don't share the same class interests. And indeed this common trait is more than just a coincidence.
In my discussions with PAC leaders and workers in 2010, the MQM's model of working and middle class leadership was repeatedly mentioned as the model that they wanted to emulate. So despite their bitter enmity, the MQM can in fact claim some credit/blame for the creation of the PAC.
My interviews in Lyari, excerpts of which I have shared below, were recorded in 2010 when relations between the PPP and the PAC were still relatively good. But even then, you can hear the bitterness that the PAC workers feel towards their elected MNAs and MPAs, and their willingness to challenge their own party on this. It is this, if I were to speculate, that is the reason for this police crackdown at this particular time and not earlier. The PAC wants more power and the PPP feudal bigwigs are not willing to surrender it. But as I said, that's just my speculation.
And again, don't interpret this admiration for one of the traits of the PAC or MQM as an excuse for their other crimes.
Anyways, listen to the exceprts of my interviews of PAC leaders and workers below. Some are in English while most are in Urdu. I've also added quick transcription/translations of each below, but they probably aren't 100% accurate.
"We don't need you to oblige us"
Shakeeb Baloch, senior leader of the PAC at the time -- not now
"Sometimes we get help. It's not that no one is looking at us. There are some people supporting us. But we need real support. We don't need you to oblige us. We need our rights, simple. So you can give it to us simply. And we will take it simply. Nothing else. We saw you in politics. We are your people. We just give votes to these MNAs, MPAs. What we expect? Nothing. Whatever you do, we don't care. Just give us our rights. Everyone says that there is a power in votes. Where it goes? I don't know. Everything disappears at the time."
"If you can't make Lyari like Paris then at least make it like Nazimabad"
Shoaib Baloch, PAC worker
"It's upsetting. If the PPP has a presence in Karachi, it is in Lyari. So why are you treating Lyari the way a stepmother would? You should provide services to the people of Lyari. If you can't make Lyari into Paris, then at least make it like DHA or Nazimabad. You have seen -- it's a reality -- that MQM has done so much work in its areas that are its votebanks. I know that MQM hasn't done work in all of Karachi, only where its votebanks are. But [Lyari] has been a votebank [for PPP] since 1971. What have they done? If you can't make Lyari like Paris then at least make it like Nazimabad.
"Since 1971 until 2010, the people of Lyari have been with the PPP. People from interior Sindh, from Nawabshah, even members of the Bhutto family have joined the Jamaat e Islami and Muslim League. But we Lyari people have stayed with the PPP. So we don't want anything else. Just give the people of Lyari jobs. Give us the basic facilities for living. Here you are making us fools."
"We send you to the assemblies"
Shakeeb Baloch, senior leader of the PAC at the time -- not now
"Now we have to think, the party that we have given sacrifices to -- our elders also. We have seen since since the time of our grandparents -- all PPP. It would be foolish to suggest that we join a different party. Should I waste the work of all my elders and start a new party? Why? I should reform it from within. If anyone says that we are not of the PPP, they are telling lies, watching dreams. Uzair Baloch's entire team have given sacrifices, end their elders have also sacrificed for the PPP. The PPP is our own party, it's everyone's. You can't restrict it and say just one group owns it. No that can't be. Every person knows.
"We should be the stakeholders. We give you votes, we get you recognized, we send you the assemblies and make you ministers. We should be the stakeholders and we should benefit fromt this. But if this isn't so then what will happen? You will create rebels yourself. You will give others the opportunity to raise their voice against you. We just want to reform from within while staying in discipline. We just say that now is the time to look and see who is wrong and who is right."
"You are in Islamabad because of our votes"
Shoaib Baloch, PAC worker
"If today you [PPP legislators and ministers] are travelling around with the Pakistani flag and VIP protocol, who is it because of? Think about that with a cool head. It's because of the people of Lyari. You are sitting in Islamabad because of our votes. If we didn't vote for you, you wouldn't be sitting in Islamabad. You would still be in Dogar Basti. You're living in Islamabad. Your tickets are being confirmed. You're visiting foreign countries. All of our MPAs and MNAs are shifting their money abroad.
"You tell me, in this country, has anything ever happened to an army person or a politician, since Bhutto? The courts ordered Nawaz Sharif to be hung, but he had already flown to Saudi Arabia the next morning. All of Pakistan's politicians and army officers are related to each other. They are all in-laws of each other. One has a son married into another's house, the other has a daughter married into another. None of them want to be affected. But I'll just say, if there aren't fools in this world, how would the cunning get rich?"
"This is another slogan of the rebels"
Shakeeb Baloch, senior leader of the PAC at the time -- not now
"We are the real stakeholders. Now elections will come. Who is working with the people? No MNA, no MPA. We, local people are here. So we are supposed to lead them, not them. This is another slogan of the rebels."
"Our representatives have a feudal mindset"
Zafar Baloch, PAC second-in-command
"The role of our representatives here has been negative. That's because our representatives are a people of feudal mentality. They consider their constituency to be their feudal property. They want to control people's thoughts. They think that they are doing right. They expect people to go to their private homes in DHA. So we have reminded them that the world has advanced. Now you must come in to the field. The people want their representatives to stand with them. They want their representatives to be visible for each of their problems or work. But the representatives expect the people to travel all the way to his private house to resolve any problem.
"Now, in a city like Karachi, where the MQM has provided a middle class leadership, obviously it will have effects on those around them. In the way that they [MQM] go around at the grassroots level. They have a system that others have seen and gained awareness. Before the people were held hostage in the hands of the politicians. So then we said "change this mentality". People became aware and expressed that they will only support and vote for those who stand by them and raise their voices for them. And we have raised our voices for the people. Sometimes we have even protested about this within our party. Because we are a part of the PPP.
"So we have made the leadership of the PPP aware. So now even they have realized that the representatives that they have sent for us are not good and are not working properly. They are not representing the people properly. They [PPP leadership] have realized this and told us to keep working for the people and don't worry about these things. Let me remind you, that we have offered our representatives before that if they come into the masses, then they will have a name. But if they continue doing politics with this feudal mindset, things can not go on."
So forget about the actual contempt of court charges and verdict against Prime Minister Gilani. This photo from inside the courtroom (taken by Asif Shahzad) illustrates well what is really wrong with this country. Brownie point for anyone who can spot all four women out of the one million men in the picture.
One of the great things about being a journalist is being able to just sit and talk with intelligent and interesting people. Unfortunately, only a few sound bites of each long interview makes it into any published story, and some of the most interesting stuff gets left out. This is mostly because of time restrictions, but also because some stuff may not be directly relevant to the story, or because Western audiences may not be able to make sense of it without understanding all of the Pakistani context.
So I'd like to make it a regular habit from now on to post some longer clips of my interviews here on my blog, which don't make it in to published stories.
I'm going to start with bits from an interview I did last week with Badar Alam, editor of Dawn's Herald magazine. The interview was for a radio story that I did for PRI's The World titled "The Growing Clout of Pakistani Sports-Star Turned Politician Imran Khan". As you can tell, Alam is quite critical of Khan and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
On the difference between Imran Khan's political support base and that of Pakistan's traditional parties:
Above: Tabuik festival in West Sumatra, Indonesia (source: Wiki Commons)
Here's a map I've made by plotting a bunch of Youtube videos of the rites of the Shia Muslim commemoration of Muharram/Ashura. The embedded map below is a bit small and annoying to use, so click on this link for a full page version of the same. Then click on any of the little blue markers and a youtube video will pop up showing you an example of how the Muharram rites are performed in that part of the world.
The map is far from exhaustive, as there are literally thousands of Muharram videos on Youtube from all over the over the world. I've just selected a few that show the wide diversity of the rituals as they have spread around the world.
The map and videos quite neatly reflect the migration and displacement patterns of people from the time of the events of Karbala in 680AD to all corners of the globe today. It also shows something about how rituals and tradition are defined, and then continuously moulded by time and migration.
So, for example, here is one path taken. The rites travelled east from Iraq, across Persia, to North India sometime between 1300 and 1700 AD. Although Shi'ite Muslims claimed ownership of the rites, in India Sunnis and even Hindus were active participants. Somewhere along the way two things became common elements of the rites:
a drum performance known as Dhol-Tasha: (video), and
and the parading of what are known as Tazias - symbolic representations of the shrine of Karbala: (video)
During the days of the British Raj, thousands of Indian indentured labourers travelled to far flung regions of the British Empire, such as Fiji, Mauritius and the Caribbean Islands, taking these rituals with them. In Trinidad, the rites became known as the festival of Hosay, in which not only Sunnis and Hindus participated, but also Afro-Trinidadians. In Trinidad, the Dhol-Tasha drums (referred to as 'Tassa') and Tazias ('Tadja') can still clearly be seen: (video)
In recent decades there has been considerable migration of people from the Caribbean to North America. So today you can see those same Tasha drums and Tazias at Muharram commemorations in Manhattan: (video)
And in Manhattan you can also see Muharram rites being carried out by migrants from India who did not stop over in the Caribbean, something quite different: (video)
There are a million other things that can be said, but have a look at the videos on the map for yourself and see.
Its sad to see the place where I have spent so many evenings contemplating the meaning of life now covered in blood and body parts.
Anyways, some sound bites of people I spoke to at the Abdullah Shah Ghazi sufi shrine after the suicide blasts there a couple hours ago (some in English, some Urdu).
So, as Karachi continues to burn from the ongoing politico-ethno-sectarian violence (or "target killings"), Interior Minister Rehman Malik has just announced a new weapon in the government's arsenal to hunt down the culprits: Satellite Imaging. Yes that's right. According to the Express Tribune:
Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Saturday said that the government has officially hired the services of satellite imaging experts to tackle the situation in Karachi.
The government decided to hire the experts keeping in view the rise of target killing incidents in the city.
That sounds great! Once we get the satellite imaging system up and running, there will be no way that those target killers will be able to escape the hands of the law.... Except that we've apparently been using this satellite technology for at lease seven months now, and obviously it has not stemmed the violence at all.
Yes, when I read the Express Tribune article today I remembered editing some footage of Rehman Malik months ago in which he said something similar. A quick google search revealed I wasn't wrong. According to a Daily Times article dated March 23, 2010:
He said that if those involved in target killings think they could escape after committing their crime, they are wrong since they are being watched closely and a satellite watching system is also being maintained for this purpose.
Now, some of you may have thought he was bluffing about having this hi-tech technology. That's why Malik also added:
I am not just scaring them, but I mean business
In fact, the honourable Interior Minister has been trying to scare away criminals with the threat of satellite technology since at least January! Quoting a story on Geo.tv published on January 9, 2010:
The Interior Minister said satellite system is also being used for carrying out monitoring.
All of this pisses me off. It is the same thing over and over again every few weeks. Political violence breaks out in Karachi --> Rehman Malik comes to Karachi and holds meetings with MQM and ANP --> Rehman Malik announces that those criminals will not be tolerated --> Rehman Malik flies back to Islamabad.
He never tells us anything new about what will be done to bring the violence to a halt permantly, but just promises to deals with the "miscreants" with an "iron hand". I don't blame Rehman Malik for everything that goes wrong in Karachi, but as the Interior Minister of Pakistan, he (and all other government officials) need to be held accountable to what they say.
To that end I did another google search and put together a timeline of what Rehman Malik has said about ending violence in Karachi. You can see it here: Timeline: Rehman Malik on Karachi Violence.
The timeline contains just the first twenty quotes that I could find. It would be nice if this could be done for all government officials. (Google has a great tool for that, but it doesn't work for Pakistan just yet: Google In Quotes)
A friend whose family is living in the Kala Dhaka area of Mansehra district tells me that the Frontier Constabulary has now left the area after completing its search operation, and the the road and boat links have finally been reopened.
But now they have to worry about the risk of the area being flooded if the Attabad Lake in Hunza bursts (as it is scheduled to do any day now). Last week some residents apparently received hoax phone calls telling them that the flood was arriving in a matter of hours, so some families ran to the mountains to seek higher ground. Although they eventually returned after being assured of safety, they still live in fear as they await the flood water.
According to my friend, the only preparation made so far by the government is to set up twenty tents in the mountains.
(For some excellent on-the-ground coverage of the Attabad Lake crisis check out the Pamir Times).
So I can't let this slip by. The Jang/Geo group's columnist and superstar Islamic televangelist Amir Liaquat Hussain (sorry you won't be able to view the link in Pakistan without using a proxy server) has been campaigning against facebook for quite some time. But he has outdone himself in his latest Urdu column in the Jang.
He really seems to have lost his mind now. He thinks that the letter 'f' is a secret symbol representing the Christian cross. He writes (my translation):
Have you ever wondered why the 'f' in 'facebook' is not capitalised as 'F'? The answer: how else then would the cross (saleeb) be formed?!
Remember that this guy used to be the State Minister for Religious Affairs of Pakistan, and was the embodiment of "enlightened moderation" during General Musharraf's rule.
Further in the column he gets down and dirty with the raw numbers:
According to the BBC, there are a total of 469,221,000 users of facebook around the world, and its income is over a billion dollars, which means they earn an average of two and a half dollars per user. From Pakistani users, therefore, they earn approximately $5,631,282, whereas applying the rate of 47.5%, all Muslim countries combined "gift" facebook with about $517,100,000.
Please take note! Instead of repeatedly clicking on this fiendish website, if we all just close our accounts and stop visiting it altogether, then these worshippers of wealth will be forced to lick the ground.
The Pakistani army has killed at least 71 civilians in an air strike in the Khyber Agency. As news gets around, people are slowly beginning to express their shock about this incident. But no one should be surprised, as I am sure 71 is just a tiny fraction of the total number of civilians who have been killed in Pakistan's various wars against its people in Swat, Waziristan, Orakzai, Balochistan and other places.
The media rarely reports on the civilian deaths due to a combination of self-censorship, difficulties in accessing the conflict, and pressure from the military. The cover up of what is going on is systematic. The only reason why we are hearing about these 71 civilians is because an official confirmed it (anonymously).
When I was reporting on the war in Swat and the IDP crisis in May last year, we came across countless civilians whose family members or friends had been killed in the conflict. About two days after the army claimed it had "cleared" Buner of the Taliban, our team drove there to report on the situation. Along the way, we saw houses, shops and vehicles that had been bombed.
As we drove by the carcass of one burned out truck there was a revolting stench hanging in the air. We stopped at the petrol station a little further down to ask about it. The station owner and a few grey-bearded men gathered there insisted that the truck had been carrying several women and children who were fleeing the fighting when it was struck by a rocket.
We drove further into Buner and stopped at the Dagar Hospital to look around. Here we met several injured people and families from Swat who all told a similar story: they were trying to flee the fighting on foot, but they were unaware of a curfew that had been imposed by the military. The army fired at them. Those who survived had to walk with their injuries through the moutainous terrain to the hospital to receive treatment.
We interviewed some of these people on camera, and when I went back to the office I filed a report that tried to show both sides of the picture: On the one hand there were people who welcomed the army and the offensive against the Taliban, and on the other hand there were those who were angered about their family members being needlessly killed by the army while trying to flee the violence.
I made the package and sent it to our head office. The next morning, they were running my report in the news bulletin -- but the editors at the head office had censored out any mention of civilian casualties caused by the army. I was angered and called the head office to find out how they could remove such an important aspect of the story. The producer apologized: "Sorry, the management has told us that we can only run pro-Army stories. These are orders from the top".
I was ashamed, and protested -- but not enough.
Stories like this were everywhere. At the start of the Swat military operation, the house of our reporter in Mingora came under fire, apparently from the military. It killed his sister. He was obviously incensed, but when he reported on television he still had to toe the official pro-Army editorial policy. He couldn't risk his job, now more than ever, because he had to support his family who had just relocated from Mingora to Peshawar.
Another colleague based in Peshawar managed to get in to Mingora at a time when it was still off limits to journalists. He described horrific scenes of truckloads of dead bodies, and people carrying their loved ones away on thelas.
But these stories weren't getting out because the management was censoring them. The ISPR on the other hand was very active in issuing press releases everyday, detailing the number of militants who had been killed and the military personnel who had been "martyred" (but never any mention of civilians). The military had restricted journalists' access to the conflict zone (other than the occasional ISPR-chaperoned visit) so there was no way for journalists to independently verify any of the claims. So unfortunately, they just repeated the ISPR claims on television as if they were the truth.
That was my experience of reporting on the war in Swat last year, but I suspect reporters face more or less the same difficulties in covering the more recent wars in Waziristan, Orakzai and elsewere. It may seem like there is a great deal of news coming from the war zone each day, but in reality it is a great big sanitized black hole in the distance, and we may never know about the civilian casualties.
I wonder sometimes how things would change if the drone attacks and the air strikes in the northwest were covered live by the media with all of the same visuals of blood and gore and people screaming and crying that we see on our TV screen whenever there is a terrorist attack in Lahore or Islamabad.
