Months to plan, one day to cut them short

KARACHI: Weddings were either cancelled or miserably held with a handful of family guests after the assassination of an MPA on Monday. People who plan for months have no way of telling when violence will break out in the city.

“My little cousin had planned her day for weeks but it turned out to be a bitter experience for the whole family,” said Sana Shah. Her cousin, whose mehndi was being planned for several weeks, had to hold the event inside their house with only a few guests on Monday. The event manager refused to come, which meant the function was pretty much cancelled, she said.

Shah was, however, not alone. “We had invited over 350 guests but only 100 showed up,” said Qasim, whose sister’s reception was held in Bath Island. Many families were brave enough to leave home to attend weddings but the police forced them to return home. “We were on our way to attend a relative’s wedding in Orchid Lawn near Park Towers when a police car intercepted us and asked us to go back home,” said Aminuddin.

When we insisted that we were safe, the policeman told us that a pickup truck was set on fire near the Clifton underpass and the area was unsafe, he said, adding that his family showed their faces to the hosts from their car and hurried back home. Apart from the families of the bride and the groom, event managers were also affected. According to one, Faisal, the bookings are finalised and arrangements are complete but all of a sudden you hear the news of violence and everything changes.

“The client backs out and we are not paid for the arrangements,” he complained. “They expect us to do their events at other dates for the same amount without any compensation.”

Events inside boundary walls or five-star hotels are less likely to be postponed as they have better security arrangement, he said, adding that attendance is still quite low. In the past, Clifton, Defence and KDA Officers Society have been relatively less troubled areas as compared to other parts of the city. “I think these areas are no longer safe,” said Rashid Qazi, a resident of Clifton Block-II.

“If an incident took place in North Nazimabad, Quaidabad or Federal B area, people never closed down their business in Clifton or DHA,” he said. “It is alarming that this is not the case anymore.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 4^th, 2010.