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Karachi shuts down on May 12 anniversary By Imran Ayub
The city remained virtually paralysed as daily life and business came to a grinding halt, with fear ruling the day.—APP KARACHI: The city remained virtually paralysed on Tuesday as daily life and business came to a grinding halt, with fear ruling the day. The Sindh government’s decision to declare May 12 a holiday failed to give citizens the confidence to overcome their reservations amid the hue and cry raised by the government’s coalition partners.Fearful citizens stayed home on the scorching day as the city witnessed a complete shutdown of its informal businesses, which usually thrive on holidays, while the situation was exacerbated by the absence of public transport from the roads. Rumours had been doing the rounds since late Monday about a possible fallout related to the second anniversary of the fateful May 12, 2007 events across the city, with many people fearing violence along ethnic lines.Though businesses in the private sector, federal institutions, the Karachi Stock Exchange and banks remained open, daily activities in these institutions remained much below the average due to the lack of staff, which failed to reach their workplaces because of the unavailability of transport. Similarly, almost all the shopping and business centres, shopping plazas, retail and wholesale markets and shops in the city remained completely closed. Transport operators, who observed a strike only last week to protest losses of their vehicles in the recent spate of violence, said Tuesday’s decision to keep the buses off the roads was more personal than official. ‘We didn’t support the May 12 strike, neither did we ask our members to keep their buses off the roads on the public holiday,’ said Irshad Bukhari, president of the Karachi Transport Ittehad.‘But after losing nearly 30 buses in less than 24 hours, most of the drivers decided on their own that they would not come out on the roads. It was actually fear of violence – which keeps occurring in this city – that kept them off the roads.’ Transport operators and traders agreed that fear had become deeply embedded in the hearts of Karachiites, and that the government’s assurance hardly worked to assuage the citizens’ concerns.‘If one goes through the news reports and statements of the political parties in both the print and electronic media in the last one week or so, one is justified to stay at home on May 12,’ said Jameel Paracha, a leader of traders in the retail and wholesale markets of the city’s old areas, which housed more than 4,000 shops. City police chief Wasim Ahmed echoed these thoughts, saying that the ‘strong views’ of the political parties about May 12 had already created much hype, which led to the city wearing such a deserted look on Tuesday.
‘POLITICAL
MATURITY’ The coalition partners in the provincial government – the Awami National Party and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – which earlier supported separate strike calls and then stepped back after the government declared May 12 a public holiday, differed on the on the subject of citizens’ fear on the second anniversary of the deadly episode, which claimed nearly 40 lives.‘The Karachiites in fact supported the ANP’s stand on May 12 and stayed at home to mourn the tragic 2007 event,’ said Amin Khattak, a provincial leader of the ANP. ‘There was no element of fear, as the law and order situation remained under control due to better coordination among the political parties.’He said due to the ANP’s efforts May 12 had been recognised in the country’s history and from this point on, the party would campaign for a transparent investigation into the incident through serving judges.But Faisal Sabzwari, a provincial minister and the MQM’s deputy parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, agreed that the ‘fear element was there’ despite the fact that the government declared May 12 a public holiday. ‘If the people are threatened time and again by strike calls, you can’t ignore that (fear) factor,’ he said. ‘The parties in the coalition government came up with better coordination and played their role to maintain peace in the city.’But Mr Sabzwari suggested that for a lasting peace, there was a need to design a policy which could lead to the removal of those issues that caused such fear and harassment to prevail among the people. ‘I am afraid to admit that the situation on the ground suggests that things are not ideal,’ he observed. ‘The MQM has raised the issue with all facts and figures about the increasing influence of the land and drug mafias in the city, which enjoy political patronage. This area needs to be addressed for lasting peace in the city. Dawn:Wednesday, 13 May, 2009
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