Making of a Mogadishu

Posted on March 30, 2012

Karachi is aflame horribly. Not that vile blood-soaked violence had given any much respite to the beleaguered port city over these times. Killings and criminality of all sorts had been blighting the nation�s prized economic hub interminably. But as the smell of an impending election has begun tickling some nostrils, the bloodletting and violence have struck the city yet more vengefully, with murderers and arsonists plunging it into a thick darkness of fear and gloom. 
But why are the power players of all hues and strips so hell-bent on making of this crucial city a Mogadishu of Pakistan in their wild rivalry to fatten their war chests through means obscenely foul and vote-banks through fear and intimidation? All are posing to be angels and painting their putative foes as villains of the piece? But none can show his skirt clean. All�s are muddied with wanton bloodletting, knavish violence and evil extortion. The people know all this for a fact and are shuddering with the cold fear of their beloved abode being recklessly driven to a precipice from where it will be so hard to pull back to even a semblance of safety.
Why are the crazy power players in their no-holds-barred fight to conquer the port city doing all this to the harried residents who have no other wish except getting on with their lives for the weal and welfare of their families and their kith and kin? If these power players take a pause from their made pursuit and ponder for a moment they will know similarly-motivated Somali warlords got into a bloody war on tribal lines to capture the suzerainty of their capital city of Mogadishu. But in time they all were thrown by the wayside to turn irrelevant and redundant for all times to come, and it was the criminal gangs that wrested the control of the capital and parcelled it out between themselves into jealously-protected separate fiefdoms. 
Over the time, Mogadishu has seen many a turn in its fate, but all to the worse. And if it has not seen the return of peace and tranquility to its life, it has not seen the return of the once-powerful warlords either. They have turned into a nonentity permanently as far the city is concerned, even if those still alive may be of some consequence to their own tribes in the interior. And no different is going to be denouement for the power players drenching our key city of Karachi into floods of blood, violence and criminality. They all must bear this in mind. Perceptibly, the underworld, with which they all have their links, notwithstanding their so obviously unconvincing denials, is gaining upper-hand in the city, reducing them all into irrelevancies considerably. And in not too distant a future they all will certainly be playing a second fiddle to organised criminal gangs, if at all. 
But if they have some concern for the besieged citizens of the ill-fated city and if they have some love still left in their stony hearts for the country, they would be aghast to know of what their mischievous enterprise is inevitably leading up to. Worrisomely, the city, for the most part, already stands divided up both demographically and residentially into distinct parcels on ethnic, linguistic, factional and even confessional lines, as was Mogadishu tribally in the yore. Can these blinded power-crazy players imagine what it would be like if they charge these distinct parcels with raw emotions and rabid sensibilities? Luckily, the residents as yet by and large remain unswayed and uninfluenced. But for how long would they? The inevitable would just be catastrophic, unquestioningly.
But why the establishment is sitting pretty, watching silently all this dangerous power game going on so spiritedly in full swing. Karachi is too precious a city of the country to be trifled with. In no event, it can be thrown out to the wolves to be belaboured and tossed over. The power players are dispensable, but it is not. For too long, they have played with it recklessly, rashly and shamelessly. Their devilish game must now come to an end. The residents have to be lifted out of the fear of these insane players, their thuggish goons and their friendly criminal gangs. The establishment must act, and act with an iron hand. Karachi must return to peace, tranquility and calm at any rate. We cannot bear at all its turning into a Mogadishu of Pakistan. That has to be averted at any cost. 

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          Does our President/PM read Frontier Post?

I have read your Editorial today (Sat 31^st Mar 2012) which is so

 conclusive and comprehensive that it does not any further

 explanation, elucidation and or clarification whatsoever. Each expression and word speaks aloud and distinctly asks our rulers to open up their eyes to see what is happening in Karachi and then feel their heart beat to realize what life means in the city which is not what PTV relays when it pictures a musical evening program of Karachi. I am as sure as death itself that our VVIPs do have all that what you can rightly boast of so I will advise you in your own interest that you must not be driven away if someone jealously says that they are without eyes, ears, heart and brain to name only those organs which are most related to the writing otherwise nature has not been unkind to them to be deprived of the rest of the human body organs.

Truly speaking very often, not daily to be honest, I read your editorials with great curiosity and interest and each one them is a masterpiece covering all the topics and subjects relating to Pakistan in particular and world in general. I can say with strong conviction and full confidence that it is almost impossible to figure out as to which one is the best simply because you are dug deep into the writing you are reading and knowingly or unknowingly you rate what you have just read but as and when you read the next editorial you are crossed as to which one is better, the one you read now or the one you read earlier. You face the same baffle and bewilder alike each time if I am not dishonest. Editorial is always the face of the newspaper and quite often it is the editorial and not the news, views, cartoon and photographs which is taken into consideration when evaluating a newspaper so from that point of view Frontier Post ranks as good as any newspaper can boast of. Each day there is a lesson or caution or advice which ought to be read in Islamabad with open mind and be given due weight but alas Islamabad is not toned and geared up accordingly.

I doubt your Frontier Post is read and in Islamabad and I beg your pardon if you are hurt, annoyed and or insulted by reading my these remark though I have never ever thought alike. I will however go another step forward because I believe rather strongly believe that your editorials are certainly read in Islamabad but not understood otherwise situation had been improved and not gone to dogs

.

Litmus test, if there is no more law and order situation in Karachi from tomorrow then it proves that your editorial of today is properly read, understood and implemented hence no killing, no extortion, no abduction etc.  

Who earns laurels then, FP or President/PM?