What’s in a name?: Banned PAC switches to Urdu - it is now Awami Amn Committee

Organisation to reopen all 130 Karachi offices and challenge ban in court.

KARACHI: The banned Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) may have found a way around the federal government’s ban and will continue to function, this time, as the Awami Aman Committee (AAC).

The committee was officially banned on Monday, but, as the organisation’s leader, Zafar Baloch, told The Express Tribune, the PAC stopped work after former home minister Zulfiqar Mirza of the Pakistan Peoples Party announced that it had merged with the PPP some six months ago. Now however, the organisation plans to open its offices in Karachi in a day or two.

Meanwhile, they will challenge the ban on the PAC in court. Until they get a verdict in their favour, they will work as the AAC. According to Zafar Baloch, the name change that will enable them to continue their activities was Mirza’s idea. The concept is by no means a new one though - several organisations banned by the government are still working under new names.

“We have already wasted much time,” he said. “To avoid further delay we have taken this decision.”

There are about 130 PAC offices scattered across Karachi. Zafar Baloch claimed that all of them would reopen gradually, keeping in mind possible resistance from the government, law enforcement agencies and rival political parties.

The Old City areas, Orangi Town, Qasba Colony, Baloch Goth, PIB, Jahangir Road, Mawach Goth, Malir, Hyderi, Pak Colony, Golimar, Garden, Ilyas Goth, Liaquatabad, Metroville, SITE, Sohrab Goth, Mauripur and Keamari are among the offices’ locations.

Meanwhile, government sources say that there may be an operation against the PAC leadership and activists in the coming days. Earlier on, the Rangers raided Lyari several times and unearthed three torture cells, seized arms and ammunition and detained about 150 suspects.

For law enforcers, however, the change in the name makes no difference. An official told The Express Tribune that as they are working against criminals irrespective of party affiliation, the renaming was irrelevant. The PPP, on the other hand, has distanced itself from the whole affair. PPP Karachi chief Najmi Alam made it clear that the organisation’s decision to rename itself was its own and the PPP has nothing to do with the PAC or AAC.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2011.