Lyari spins the wheel for its fortune
Thus, as thousands of people celebrated Baloch Culture Day in Lyari on Friday night, the PAC’s wheelers and dealers glowed with pride. Weeks of feverish meetings had paid off.
Nothing indicated more that the PAC is up for grabs than the arrival of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Sindh chief Ghous Ali Shah. “Target achieved,” remarked Habib Jan Baloch, who is one of the PPP’s more prominent Lyari-based representatives and a member of its Sindh council. “It is also a message for those who ignore us,” he said, with a veiled reference to the PPP.
Despite PAC’s close ties to key figures such as Zulfiqar Mirza and the PPP’s Karachi chief Senator Faisal Raza Abidi, perceived links to organised crime have relegated it to the sidelines of mainstream politics. The Zardari-led party has even disowned PAC in the political arena. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has accused it of extortion, ethnic genocide, drug-fuelled gang wars. But with the Baloch Cultural Day celebrations, PAC seems to want to convey an entirely different image, one that says it’s open for business and isn’t going to be content to just watch from the sidelines. And in order to make its voice heard, PAC men are willing to speak to just about anyone.
“We visited different parties and planned to remove the negative impression of the area,” said Habib Jan. “We have created a good environment for the PPP but if it considers our efforts meaningless, or something else, then we can’t say anything.”
PAC controls a vote bank that symbolically represents the heart of the PPP in Karachi (see box below). While almost all parties, including the MQM and the PML-N, have been active in the neighbourhood for years, the PPP has dominated. However, Friday’s celebrations signalled to the PPP that PAC now wants political legitimacy and one of its key demands is a candidate for the elections. Otherwise, its constituency could easily be up for grabs.
“Uzair Baloch can be the candidate from Lyari,” Habib Jan chuckled, as he spoke to The Express Tribune between socialising with the guests. “Why not? He is young blood and people like him. He would be a better option. He is doing a good job in Lyari. To some extent, he has removed the negative image of the area.”
Uzair has headed PAC since its founder, Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch aka Dakait, was killed in 2009. Rumour had it that Rehman ‘Dakait’ had grown too big for his boots and was demanding a serious political position. Banners went up in Lyari stressing his proper name along with the better-sounding title ‘Sardar’ instead of the street epithet Dakait.
PAC is more than aware of its past, but also knows that it has played a certain role. “There was time when criminals were sheltered by politicians,” said Habib Jan. “But when [‘Sardar’] Rehman was at his peak, the politicians got their shelter.”
But for all these services rendered, the PPP-PAC bond has frayed at the edges and this was visible at the event. None of the PPP’s important provincial leaders attended. That did not mean of course, that the PPP is unaware that PAC had invited others.
“You could call this blackmailing or something else but we have not decided yet how to deal with this,” remarked a senior PPP leader in Lyari, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It is not the PPP’s policy or instruction to hold meetings with other political parties. They meet in their own capacity.”
The PPP’s Karachi vice president Shakoor Shad wanted to downplay the event. He said that the party has not taken serious notice of these political meetings. “It is their democratic right. They can meet anyone,” he commented, referring to Habib Jan and his group, Friends of Lyari, which he called an independent platform. “It’s a normal thing and PPP sees no threat with such meetings.”
PAC leader Zafar Baloch put another spin on it. “This is according to President Zardari’s policy of reconciliation,” he said, noting that the message being sent out to other parties was that they too, were welcome in Lyari.
The other parties
For its part, the PML-N sees itself as a player in resolving the conflict between PAC and the Kutchi Rabita Committee (KRC), a cluster of 164 groups that has opposed PAC’s dominance and has faced the brunt of its violent tactics.
“The PPP leaders had tried their level best to resolve the ongoing conflict between the PAC and KRC. We can play the best role in resolving their clashes,” said Sultan Bahadur Khan, the PML-N’s Lyari president. “Both sides are supporters of the PPP and as a third power in the area they consider us a reasonable option.”
Politics in Sindh is largely an old boys’ club and the KRC and PAC are both vying for the PPP’s attention. While PAC is dominated by the Baloch, KRC represents the Kutchi Memon groups and is not happy that sections of the PPP are giving PAC a ‘free hand’. They too, have started sounding warning bells about their support to the PPP.
“We are supporters and voters of the PPP but we have been ignored,” says KRC leader Hussain Kutchi. “We’ll definitively take a decision if our reservations are not addressed.”
He claimed that the KRC has over three million voters in nine towns of the city. “The PPP leadership can’t ignore us anymore. If this attitude persists, we’ll be free to join any party or contest against other parties, including the PPP,” he warned.
President Asif Ali Zardari has often directly intervened in Lyari’s issues, and was reportedly not happy with PAC. On the other hand, Zulfiqar Mirza’s patronage for PAC has drawn support from within the PPP as well, while others oppose it. But the PPP does not appear ready to draw a line. It is believed that when SSP Chaudhry Aslam was tasked to achieve peace in the area, he wanted a ‘free hand’ – one that may be difficult to get given the PAC’s intense opposition to Aslam, who they believe killed Rehman ‘Dakait’, their leader, in a staged encounter.
While PAC and KRC may be bluffing, the PPP does not appear visibly concerned about political developments in Lyari as yet. It tried to assuage Lyari’s anger with a development package worth hundreds of millions of rupees.
But the key decision for the PPP will be who it picks as a candidate. “We have told the party that we want loyal candidates who can end this feeling [of being ignored],” Zafar said. “The people of Lyari expect that their elected representatives will solve their problems.”
He alleged that representatives like MNA Nabeel Gabol ‘sold’ jobs that were supposed to go to Lyari’s residents and placed their own sons at these positions. “They are not qualified [to work for us]. The same sense of being ignored that exists in Balochistan will prevail here as well if this [behaviour] continues,” he said.
While it appears unlikely that any party would take PAC under its wings – given its links to crime – there is a silver lining for the PPP in this cloud. While Zafar is adamant that the candidate must be someone who has Lyari’s best interests at heart and not an “outsider”, this does not apply to Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, the chairperson of the PPP. “He is not an unacceptable candidate to us. He will obviously have a good team with him and in any case, our fight is not with the PPP but with our representatives.”
WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY
SABA IMTIAZ
Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2012.
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