Inactivity at its finest

Rumours have been rife for months that defacto rulers of Karachi are about to spring into action, do a clean-up job

That the governments of the most Islamic of Republics has seen fit for decades to close down what we are told is an economically challenged country for (officially) five days at a stretch twice a year — which to all intents and purposes with the work ethics being what they are actually amounts to, give or take, a week each time — should make the patriotic lot somewhat puzzled. And then of course, apart from the two grand occasions, there are other religious and national one-day offs.



But there is a general silence on the viability of these generous gifts to the nation, courtesy the religious fervour which prevails — thanks to the influence wielded by the gentlemen of the cloth on politicians, administrators, industrialists, businessmen, media, the military and whoever else rules over the fortune and misfortune of this stricken land. The exception has been on the many occasions in the past when the MQM, in a blink of an eye, has brought Karachi to a standstill — literally. Then, all have been up in arms ‘condemning’ (a favourite political word) the fact that the economic loss to the country of Karachi’s lapses into inactivity has cost the country billions of rupees each time Sindh’s one-time favourite coalition partner has struck.

So, if one day’s loss in one city is totted up in billions, how come no one has ever done sums to add up what the loss would be to the entire country for five or more days twice a year? Or has it been mere pique in the case of the MQM’s strike policy?

The party has now fallen upon hard times, and for the moment, gone are the days when it called all the shots in Karachi and other cities of Sindh. However, the media and others are still mesmerised by the rantings of an unhinged British citizen, sitting in a north London suburb, allegedly on piles of dubiously obtained lucre, who holds in misguided thrall his band of followers. The party’s hold has of course always since it leapt into prominence in the 1980s been inspired by fear and apparently continues to be in the case of its more prominent leaders here in the homeland, who are well-acquainted with its leader’s propensity for reprisals of a most unpleasant nature.

Of late, the rantings from London have surely been more laughable than anything else and are certainly not deserving of being taken seriously, even by his hard-core acolytes. It is high time that the party’s creators sorted things out for once and for all so that there can be no comeback. The past deeds cannot be forgotten, especially by the press which would do well to remember how, for well over a decade it was literally terrorised into silence. When referring to some of the most outrageous actions, its followers meted out to members of the press community — and to many citizens who stood up to it — the acronym MQM could not be printed; there were just coy referrals to ‘a political party’.

As for the political party which now rules in Sindh, well, enough has been said and written about its impending demise, but the fact remains that it is still here with us, making mischief, hauling in mounds of moolah and going its own merry way under the questionably able leadership of good old Asif Zardari, who like his counterpart in London, can call the shots from more comfortable climes. Rumours have been rife for months that what we are told are the defacto rulers of Karachi are about to spring into action and do a clean-up job. It is taking an awfully long time, testing patience. The corrupt were to be rounded up, but all that has happened is that they have been reshuffled. It is all fast becoming a rather unsavoury joke.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th,  2015.

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