KARACHI, Oct 18: As the Emirates aircraft carrying former prime minister and PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto touched down at 1.45pm on Thursday, the massive and largely peaceful crowd gathered to accord her a rousing welcome served as a grim reminder of May 12, when the same area was the scene of some of the most unbridled violence witnessed in the city in a decade.
Tens of thousands of people, cutting across class and economic boundaries, made their way from all parts of the country to witness Ms Bhutto’s second historic return to Pakistan, this time after eight years in self-imposed exile. The size of the crowd was such that it took the former prime minister nearly four hours to make her way from Terminal One, where she climbed aboard her specially-constructed vehicle, to the junction of Sharea Faisal, some two kilometres away.
And the mood of the crowd was such that Ms Bhutto declined to travel within the bullet-proof interior of the converted 20-foot container and chose instead to ride on the roof of the vehicle, in the open and surrounded by party workers and a cheering public.
Sharea Faisal was jammed with a huge number of PPP supporters, many of them dancing to drumbeats or singing supportive songs whose lyrics suggested they had been written specifically for this occasion. The scene was, in fact, markedly different from what had been expected: in the days approaching her arrival, officials and intelligence sources had delivered dark warnings of threats to her security and the possibility of terrorist activity.
Just over six months ago, the airport and Sharea Faisal witnessed an attempt to afford a much smaller welcome to another important figure, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, who became the focus of public support in wake of the presidential reference filed against him by President General Pervez Musharraf on March 9. The scenes from that dark day are still fresh: lawyers’ rallies attacked in pincer movements by gangs of armed youths while police personnel and Rangers stood idly by, journalists, politicians and other citizens targeted with impunity. By the end of the day, nearly 50 people had lost their lives and the responsibility for the events of May 12 still remains to be apportioned.
The stark differences between the two welcomings indicate that unlike May 12, on October 18 the establishment – and more specifically, the provincial ruling party of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) – set out to facilitate Ms Bhutto since her arrival was authorised by the government. This fact is evident from the National Reconciliation Ordinance and the months of backchannel negotiations that preceded the event, resulting in Ms Bhutto’s warm thanks extended to the city nazim on Thursday.
A matter of political expediency
In order to prevent other figures’ entry into the city, in earlier months the ruling party had quoted security concerns, issues of traffic management and public convenience or development works. Chief Justice Chaudhry was prevented from exiting the airport ostensibly because the provincial government did not want the politicisation of the lawyers’ movement. In fact, the MQM went so far as to schedule a massive rally on the same day. Imran Khan’s entry was disallowed by enforcing Section 144 of the Criminal Procedures Code, using the excuse that the welcoming crowds would disturb traffic patterns and the citizenry’s daily routine, as well as impede the development works in progress along Sharea Faisal.
On October 18, however, the same provincial government undertook measures to facilitate a welcome rally that cannot possibly be termed anything other than political, and also took steps to address concerns such as traffic management and the city’s daily routine. All public and private schools were closed by official order while alternative routes to the airport and along Sharea Faisal were planned and advertised well in advance.
When the chief justice was due to arrive in Karachi to attend the golden jubilee celebrations of the Sindh High Court Bar Association, he was sent a letter by the Home Secretary asking him to postpone his visit because of “security concerns.” This month, however, the same person held exhaustive meetings with PPP officials to chalk out a detailed security plan involving a cordon of police mobiles flanking Ms Bhutto’s vehicle, over 20,000 police and security personnel and an advance sweep of all bridges, buildings and culverts along the former prime minister’s planned route.
Public convenience immaterial
The provincial government’s concern for inconvenience suffered by citizens is reflected by the fact that nearly two dozen flights were cancelled and economic, industrial and commercial activities across the city were reduced almost by half.
On May 12, police and security agencies set up massive roadblocks and containers to block the path of rallies headed towards the airport — barricades that later served as pens for people being targeted by gunmen operating in the presence of passive security forces. By contrast, on the day of Ms Bhutto’s arrival, containers were placed primarily around Star Gate and Terminal One in order to protect the former primer minister’s person. No move was made to prevent supporters from entering the city or amassing along Sharea Faisal late Wednesday night and the next morning. There was a minor baton-charge just before noon when a crowd forced its way through a police cordon between Jinnah Terminal and Star Gate. At the next blockade, however, when female supporters climbed over the barricade, the police eventually opened the gate to let through about two to three thousand people and re-barred it after their passing.
Official duplicity
A number of PPP supporters had, in fact, arrived at the airport with the assumption that the event may well turn into a repeat of May 12. “Our Karachi friends advised us not to come since they witnessed the violence when the chief justice came,” said 29-year-old Sajid Ali who pooled money with his friends to rent a 20-seater bus to bring them from Nawabshah to Karachi. “We are amazed that nothing has happened but then, the administration extended full support. On the earlier occasion, merely a few hundred people from Karachi gathered to welcome the chief justice and it ended in bloodshed.” Ali pointed out that around him were thousands of people from across the country yet not a single incident of violence had taken place, “which proves the administration’s role in both cases,” he told Dawn.
MQM leader Faisal Subzwari told Dawn that the party chief, Altaf Hussain, emphasised the need for reconciliation and, therefore, the party welcomed Ms Bhutto’s homecoming. However, the largely peaceful nature of the tens of thousands who gathered to greet Ms Bhutto reiterates the fact that such rallies are not by nature violent. Television footage shot all along Sharea Faisal – from the same bridges that dispensed death on May 12 – showed festive citizens awaiting Ms Bhutto, whiling away the time singing songs or sipping the fruit juices on offer by enterprising vendors. Crowd violence and brutality such as that witnessed on May 12 must, to some extent, be engineered. While Mr Subzwari maintained that “the May 12 situation cannot be compared with October 18”, the fact remains that in the case of the former rally, the hands pulling the strings were undoubtedly those of the establishment and ruling party. Otherwise, concerns of security and public inconvenience could have been as easily addressed on earlier occasions as they were on October 18.
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