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I am happy or scared, I do not know
I am one of those green passport holders who is living overseas for little over three decades but yet very much deep rooted in the soil which owned me when I was just 4 years old and migrated to Pakistan with my grand parents, parents only a month later when the biggest Islamic country was born. During the sizzling heat I am coming to Pakistan along with my paraphernalia (one wife, one daughter) for little over 14 days or, 3 hours and14 days to be exact, and during the stipulated period I can very well be found in Karachi and Lahore for sure but may dash to Islamabad as well. I am a stubborn Urdu speaker since Urdu is not only my mother tongue, like most of my worthy readers claim, rather not only my great grand father and great grand mother but even their parents spoke the same language so from each and every angle-straight, perpendicular and or converse, I am an ardent Urdu speaker. I very well speak Punjabi, at times to win over others, which I did not study, to be honest to you, and learnt while my father had been posted in Punjab province but very unluckily forgot Sindhi which I studied while I was class v and vi student in Sukkur.
Undisputedly, Urdu is the official language of Pakistan so it is well read, written and spoken all over the country be it right from sea shores of Karachi to the fag end where our territories meet Afghanistan or from Indian border to Iranian border, Urdu is the only common language known to majority of the people. However, all said and done, whether one likes it or not, Karachi is the main hub of the language where it is spoken by those as well whose mother tongue is Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Baluchi, Seraiki, or for that matter, even Potohari or Brohi, to name a few but they all speak Urdu. Now when I have proved how much addicted I am to Urdu, I simply can not avoid Karachi rather, on the contra, shall have to visit the cosmopolitan city with my family when coming to Pakistan for a quick trip to the country. Why and how, Karachi life is in danger? For quite many days, if not weeks, I am reading about clashes within Urdu speaking factions of MQM and resultantly well over two dozen people, not a small number from any count or angle, have been killed in just few days. Newspapers have also reported that in addition to this clash of two groups, even unrelated people, like some one standing on road side, or anybody going in car etc also are fired upon for no reason and rhyme. The latest is that today Thursday 11th July in Peshawar, Mian Nisar Gul, Minister for Prisons had been attacked in his car whereby his three body guards are killed and the minister sustained bullet wound in stomach and chest. Who can be safe when a minister with even body guards is not safe? Two days earlier, Pearl Continental Hotel, a 5 star luxury was targeted in the same city resulting in death of 18 people.
Three months back, I bought three return air tickets, for self, wife and our only child daughter to land in Karachi and now when almost four weeks are left to fly out to Karachi I am in a fix to come or not to come. If I do not come now then not only I loose money on canceling the booking but also bulls dose the programs I had worked out months in advance to be accomplished during the trip. I am coming now because one family now based in west but sharing common family roots is coming to Karachi during the said period of time so we too could have met each other. Lastly, though not the least, during the sizzling hot months of June to September, Kuwait educational sector is off and offers me golden chance to go back to my beloved country during such off days.
May I very earnestly request my all most respected compatriots irrespective of the category you belong to namely our popularly elected government sitting in capital / provincial head quarters or multi faced spicy opposition; enlightened newspapers editors or their regular subscribers / readers; group of business tycoons or hungry stricken masses and lastly the Urdu speaking lot or other language speakers to please advise me what do I do now. Honest to Allah, I do not want to cancel the trip but nevertheless utterly fail to work out the logistics of the trip. Is there any guarantee that I will safely reach my destination, be it a house of a relative or a hotel, once I leave the protected building of Karachi International Airport? By the grace of Allah, I very much safely checked in at a hotel but then what next. Should I be in the hotel and hotel alone simply because it is guarded though terrorists’ attacks on 5 star hotels in Islamabad and Peshawar have vaporized the hotel safety? Assuming that we are safe in hotel but the question is did we come to stay in hotel only, no certainly not but how to meet my own blood in the city. Should I ask none but my own blood to take risk of their lives to see us at the hotel or else we carry our own coffins with us to visit them instead?
Who can answer my life remembering baffling question?
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With my honest and solemn prayers
Sincere Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait / Tel + Fax (00965) 23715102 / Mobile (00965) 66229897 / Thu 11th June, 2009 at 1826 hrs
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