Participation and expression of support for a strike should be entirely voluntary.
KARACHI: The following happened to me on the morning of December 31, as I was on my way to work. I noticed that a bus had been stopped and its passengers were being asked to leave the vehicle. This was happening in a place called Patel Para in Karachi. Quite understandably, the driver of the bus was angry at losing his day’s fare and tried to argue with those who were forcing his passengers to get off the bus. A traffic policeman did eventually come on the scene and from my vantage point, it looked as if he was trying to take charge of the situation. However, to my utter surprise, the bus was eventually driven empty. As this was happening, rickshaws were passing by. All of them were stopped by these miscreants and told to get off the roads. I could tell the rickshaw drivers wanted none of this strike business and only wanted to earn a decent living. I have one question to ask those who back such strikes. Do they realise that they hurt low-income daily wage earners the most? What if the bus driver or the rickshaw driver they stopped were depending on the day’s income to put a decent meal before their families? Participation and expression of support for a strike should be entirely voluntary.
I should say that during this entire time, a Rangers van was posted not too far off but its soldiers were standing by and doing nothing to stop the miscreants from flouting the law with impunity.
Rizwan Jamil Jaffery
Published in The Express Tribune, January 1st, 2011.
