By Saeed Qureshi
In Karachi, during the past few months, the factories
are being targeted by arsonists and criminal gangs. Who are these arsonists?
The government does not know, the law enforcement agencies are not aware and the
people cannot find out where they come from. Even if the people know them, they
cannot disclose their identities for fear of terrible revenge. This largest and
port city is being economically choked by mafias that are enemy agents,
racketeers, religious dissidents and robbers abetted and sheltered by power politicians,
the feudal lords, the bureaucrats or the self proclaimed barons.
This trend of attacking and burning the industrial
units is fraught with dreadful economic backlash both for Karachi and Pakistan.
If the factories and mills are closed down or gutted by the avengers, then the
people would lose jobs and there would be more poverty. The exports would
suffer too.
The fleecing and blackmailing of the
industrialists and mill owners is easy and more lucrative than robbing the
shopkeepers and the common traders. What one could get from several retailers
could be obtained several times more from one factory owner. If the factory owners
refuse to oblige or delay in responding to the dictate of the pitiless ruffians,
their factories are torched resulting in death of workers. We have seen many
factories in the recent past gutted by the ruthless blackmailers. There burning
was due to the deliberate foul play and not because of the other causes.
In September this year more than 300 people
perished in two devastating factory fires in Pakistan. At least 280 people died
at a garment factory in Karachi; in a horrendous blaze. Close on the heels
another fire broke out at a shoe factory in Lahore resulting in the death of 21
workers. This Friday (October 26) a tissue paper manufacturing chemical factory
in Karachi’s Shershah area was burnt.
The
lives of residents in Karachi have remained unsafe for many years now. Even
today 7 citizens of this country lost their lives. These killing sprees carried
out by power gangs, extortionists, outlaws and crime cartels have become a part
of the daily life in Karachi. Those who wake up in the morning and set out for
their work places would not be sure if they would return alive to join their
families.
Death and destruction stalk the streets of the
Karachi. The brazen and unrelenting extortion by multiple groups through
telephone calls and paper slips is now a familiar pattern to rob people. If the
demands of the thugs are not met, they kill or kidnap their targets. The
ordinary people as well as the small and big businessmen in Karachi are at the
mercy of the blood hounds and savage predators to play with their lives, honor
and peaceful living of the citizens. Traveling has become hazardous in that
city.
The city of Karachi remains under a pal of
fear, harassment, intimidation and threats round the clock from rampaging and trigger
free murderous gangs. At the end of the day, the rescue and relief teams start
picking the dead bodies or the injured in full media glare. It is a ghastly
recurring spectacle witnessed by army top brass, the ministers both provincial
and federal, the president, the prime minister, the parliamentarians, the
members of bureaucracy, and the intelligence services. Yet no one moves or seems
to be serious to curb and contain this mayhem.
The bazaars, the shopping centers and the business
markets are assailed and controlled by the merciless thugs whose brutality
cannot be described in words. The decapitated, bullet ridden and tortured
bodies of people are frequently found in the city. The people are kidnapped,
the women raped and houses broken in. The properties are forcibly occupied and
no power on earth can get those vacated without payment of the demanded price.
The children and adults alike are kidnapped for hefty ransoms.
Police force being insufficient and ill-trained
has utterly failed to cope with the Himalayan challenge of restoring order and
normal life in Karachi. The members of police force also join the criminals in
loot and robberies. They provide shelter to the criminals and do not arrest
them even if they know them. In many crimes the policemen were discovered to be
the accomplices of dacoits.
The political parties are mum and silent, including
the powerful MQM and the ruling PPP. The religious doyen of Karachi Jamaat-i-Islami, the stray social factions, the peace makers all are either helpless or
deliberately ignore this frightening state of affairs. The leaders who profess
to redeem the people of Pakistan and turn this country into abode of peace and
unit forget their claims and pledges when they step into power. Power grabbing
has become rigmarole between the political parties.
The
authorities are feigning to be deaf, dumb and unconcerned on these hair-raising
happenings that carry ominous foreboding for the economic development of
Pakistan already reeling under a continuous crisis of stability and social
peace. The whole country presents the doomsday scenario with life getting
degraded by myriad socio-economic problems and by dearth and obsolete civic amenities.
There is endemic and acute shortage of potable water, the persistent curse of load
shedding, and the archaic and insufficient road network. The education, health,
public transport and other essential services are miserable and horrifically
flawed.
The
politicians both out and in power are crooks, urchins and a sleazy lot with shameless
countenances. They are protected by bullet proof SUVs, hordes of security staff
and travel with a retina of parasites and stooges. They travel on the roads
like pharaohs of Egypt or emperors of Rome, and the richest rulers of a poor
and directionless nation.
They
have no shame, no honor, nor self-dignity. In fact they are caricatures as if
to ridicule the poor and helpless countrymen with their display of galore,
extravaganza and sparking style of life. Their glamorous life style stands in sharp
and woeful contrast to the unsafe, listless and harassed live of their
countrymen whose predominant majority is impoverished. The people find it hard to
feed them and their children, seek justice or relief from police stations, the
courts or from the government departments ridden by bribe and inefficiency.
I am at
my wit’s end. May God almighty intervene and save this otherwise a magnificent,
awesome and amazingly beautiful country. Ameen!
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