Wheeling and dealing: Have rickshaw, will vote

Lyari’s residents draw lots for 27 brand new presents from the president.

KARACHI:

The promise of a rickshaw lured dozens of Lyari’s residents to Football House in Chakiwara on Friday evening to participate in a draw for 20 of them being given away.

The vehicles are a gift from President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the co-chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The head of the defunct Peoples Amn Committee, Uzair Jan Baloch, presided over the draw.

A total of 27 rickshaws were given away. Seven went to the families of men who were killed in the violence in Karachi and had no wage-earners in the house, according to Syed Azhar Shah, an executive member of the Lyari Resource Centre (PAC’s new name for its social and philanthropic wing). The rickshaws are valued at Rs160,000 each and came with a full tank of petrol. Women and men of all ages lined up to submit their National Identity Cards for one.

Khairunissa, a mother of four, said her husband’s unemployment had brought her to the event. “He hasn’t been employed for 16, maybe 17 years,” the resident of Singu Lane said. “The house runs on the salary of my daughter, who earns Rs8,000 at the Vush television channel. I’ve never been here before, there are always too many men around. I saw an ad in the Baloch newspaper and came.”

Women and men crowded around Uzair Jan when he arrived at the event. They patted his face and kissed his forehead.

Ex-PAC leader Zafar Baloch said, “There were dozens of rickshaws that President Zardari gave for Lyari’s unemployed, 30 came in Sardar Uzair Jan’s share. We don’t know where the others went, but we decided to give them away in a transparent manner. Everyone is deserving of them but we only have these many, so there must be a draw.”

According to Zafar, “This was Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s dream that Lyari’s people be dealt with fairly. We are fulfilling her promise.”

As the box with the NICs was brought out, the crowd surged forward to see Uzair Jan pick them out.

There was applause for each rickshaw-winner, and a running commentary on their residences and background. Abdul Waheed, the seventh name out of the box, runs a bun kebab stand, piped up someone from the crowd. The twentieth, Abdul Aziz, is an unemployed footballer.

The winners were handed over the keys and the registration documents. Uzair Jan Baloch also announced that a rickshaw would go to Zaman Ali’s family, a reporter for Daily Extra News who was killed in Lyari.

Friends of Lyari International convener and PPP worker Habib Jan Baloch said politics was the name of serving your people. “None of these winners were relatives of Uzair or Zafar,” Habib Jan said. “This was completely open.” Uzair Jan added that the rickshaws were not for a Baloch or a Punjabi – just whoever’s name came in the draw.

The brand new rickshaws represent at least a temporary form of employment and income for Lyari’s men and women. As the next election approaches, Lyari will look to the PPP for largesse.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2012.