Thursday, April 30, 2009
Karachi violence echoes in House
By Mumtaz Alvi
ISLAMABAD:
A nationalist legislator stunned the Senate on Wednesday when he revealed that the national anthem was no more in vogue in the Balochistan schools, following the killing of three Baloch leaders.
The National Party lawmaker, Mir Hasil Bizenjo, made this revelation while participating in the debate on the presidential address to the joint sitting of parliaments two chambers on March 28. He called for the implementation of the recommendations made by the sub-committee, headed by Wasim Sajjad, and contested Interior Minister Rehman Maliks claim that since the coalition government took over last year, no military operation was under way in Balochistan.
During the debate, which is to be wound up on Thursday, PML-N parliamentary leader Muhammad Ishaq Dar blamed Maulana Sufi Muhammad for the present disturbances vis--vis the agreement signed between the NWFP government and the Taliban to which he was the mediator.
The Awami National Party lawmakers agitated over what they called the target killing of Pakhtoons in Karachi and elsewhere in the run up to May 12, the day in 2007 when over 40 political activists were gunned down across Karachi, majority of them Pakhtoons.
ANPs Zahid Khan particularly mentioned the torching of a Pakhtoon, who was owner of a restaurant and wounding of his brother. He asked Minister of Interior Rehman Malik to inform the House about the probe into the unfortunate developments.
Abdur Rahim Mandokhail, another lawmaker, belonging to the Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, and Abdul Nabi Bangash of the ANP wanted an assurance from the government that the Pakhtoons would be fully protected in Pakistan.
They made it clear that Karachi was a city that housed all the communities from different parts of Pakistan and no particular group had the right to stake claim on it. Bangash said that the tragic incidents could be a ploy to bar the ANP from observing a shutter down on May 12 in Karachi to mark the killing of Pakhtoons two years back.
MQM parliamentary leader Tahir Hussain Mashhadi expressed his anguish over the killings and said that he was in full agreement with other lawmakers that Karachi belonged to all the communities living there.
He dispelled the impression that any particular group had the privilege to take out rallies and said that recently, the PPP, the MQM and the Sunni Tehrik had taken out large rallies. During his speech, Bizenjo said that the recent murder of Baloch leaders had shaken the entire Balochistan.
The nationalist lawmaker alleged that the politicians were killed by those who could not be held accountable, referring to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilanis statement on the floor of the Senate a few days back that those behind the gory act would be brought to book.
He said that lawmakers from Balochistan had asked former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif twice each to remove a security check-post from Uthal in Balochistan. This shows the helplessness of elected prime ministers, he said.
The national anthem is no more sung in Balochistan schools and what we are doing here. The rulers will have to rise to the occasion before it is too late, he cautioned. He took Rehman Malik to task for his recent statement that the government was considering to revive the Sardari system in Balochistan, saying it was rotten and obsolete and impracticable.
The lawmaker billed the Gwadar Port as one of the biggest frauds committed by ex-president Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz, when pieces of land worth a few thousands of rupees were sold out for Rs 10-20 million and hence, overseas Pakistanis, stung by 9/11 events, were looted.
The Pakistan Steel Mills sale and the stock exchange crashes were other big frauds of the previous regime, he noted. The port was operational in such a manner that wheat was unloaded here and then transported to the Karachi Port, located some 600 km away. Citing an example as to how Balochistan was forced to live in 17th Century, he noted that not even a single head of around 60 government organisations and institutions was from his province.
PML-Ns Ishaq Dar noted that the president should have thrown light on the one-year performance of the PPP-led government and given a new direction to it. He wanted the government to adopt austerity in the given economic situation in Pakistan.
On the Swat agreement, he said that Sufi Muhammad had promised that the Taliban would be disarmed after the accord, but this was not done and some other violations were committed. Today, they are facing the music for these violations.
He said that on seeing a big gathering in Swat, Sufi Muhammad had given a political colour to the entire exercise and described parliament and judiciary as un-Islamic. He contended that President Zardari should not have gone to the Friends of Pakistan (FoP) and said he saw no difference between the FoP and consortium.
Dar blamed ex-president Ayub Khan for selling three Pakistani rivers to India. He called him a military dictator and sought trial of all those who had hurt Pakistans national interests one way or the other.
He believed the biggest issue between Pakistan and India in the time to come would their row on water share, as India had already been building dams on the rivers that belonged to Pakistan.
He called for bringing the Baloch nationalists to the mainstream and wished the MQM leader Altaf Hussain would have been in Pakistan in these testing times. The House will now reconvene on Thursday at 11:00 am to wind up the debate on the presidential address.
Balochistan schools abandon national anthem, Senate told
