A murky saga

Uzair was at one time said to be close to PPP leaders and was widely regarded as party’s ‘face’ in Lyari

The Rangers have announced the arrest of Uzair Baloch, the leader of a gang that operates in Lyari, Karachi. He is also said to have been the leader of the proscribed Peoples Amn Committee, which was banned in late 2011. He was apparently attempting to enter the city and is said to have been “carrying arms”. The arrest is unlikely to bring the saga to an end, more likely herald the start of another chapter.

The travels of Uzair Baloch, and the various attempts by Pakistani agencies to capture him, are the stuff of Bollywood and do little to enhance the reputations of any individual or agency involved thus far. He was arrested by Interpol in Dubai in December 2014 and a police team then went to the UAE to make efforts to bring him back to Pakistan — or not. The team returned empty-handed in March 2015 and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has been keeping mum on the issue. How and when he arrived back in Pakistan is a considerable mystery given the high-profile nature of his detention. How the PPP will respond to the arrest also remains something of a mystery, as does what might be revealed when and if Baloch ever makes it into a court of law. He was at one time said to be close to the leaders and senior members of the PPP, and widely regarded as the party’s ‘face’ in Lyari — a dubious distinction in this instance. Currently, there are 55 cases pending against him in a range of courts, one of which relates to murder.

The interweaving of politics and violence has characterised — and terrorised — large parts of Karachi for decades. No political party in the city is entirely free of murderously spilled blood and corruption. That Uzair Baloch was and presumably potentially still is a part of that dark political underbelly seems irrefutable, but proving that in a court of law may prove as elusive as he has himself been. We await developments, on a number of fronts, with considerable interest.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2016.

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