North Karachi disaster:

Sindhi Press Dec 12
North Karachi disaster: multidimensional probe needed
Kawish
Karachites had hardly gone to sleep when fire swept through a shanty settlement claiming at least 42 lives including 20 children, leaving 25 other critical injured. The government has announced a compensation for injured and the dead and also to initiate a probe into the causes of the incident.

Karachi people have witnessed many a fire incidents including of PNSC building and Revenue department building in Sindh secretariat. They also saw the fire flames on April 9 last year which swept the sixth floor of Tahir Plaza and experienced the smell of burning of human bodies and explosive material. But the havoc created by the fire that broke out Thursday night claiming over 42 lives made another history. The causes of fire could not be ascertained as yet. However it has left a number of unanswered questions, which forms basis of the investigation.

Divergent opinion of officials and elected representatives about the causes of fire also demands a multidimensional probe into the incident. The statement of a Sindh government official seems very funny, in which he said, some inmates gathered at the fire due to extreme cold, and fire caught shawl of one of them which engulfed the entire shanty settlement by the raging flames. How fire caught to a Shawl would burn to the ground within hours the entire settlement leaving no escape route? Another official has served up a familiar excuse — he believes that the fire was sparked by a power wire that fell on the huts. This version also seems to be too lame. If fire was sparked by a power wire that fell on the huts, it also leaves opportunities to escape and would not result into high number of deaths. Some circles are finding similarity with the fire incident of Tahir Plaza, where chemical was used in the fire.

The possibility of a deliberate attempt to set the settlement on fire cannot be ruled out as the land on which the squatters lived was valuable and might have been under the eyes of the city's powerful land mafia. There was a dispute and the mafia wanted to get it vacated. This should also be investigated. The government is aware that there are criminal gangs and mercenary killers operating in this metropolitan city, who use to get vacated the lands and plots on behest of land mafia. This could be an act of such gang.

Probe of earlier incidents was closed with the traditional ‘findings” and excuses that fire was caused due to fall of electric wire or it was accidental. There seems to be little hope that this incident would be thoroughly probe and it would go beyond the traditional findings of short circuit or accidental.

Providing compensation and alternate plots to the victim families is laudable, as announced by the government. But there is dire need to find the real causes which resulted into death of 42 people that can not compensated. Further, if there is some mafia behind it, it would continue to work and we will witness some more such incident. Therefore it demands a multidimensional probe to expose and punish the culprits. – (Jan 10)

Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi

Violence in Karachi - Ibrat

Violence in Karachi

Ibrat

VIOLENCE erupted between the Urdu- and Pashtu-speaking populations in Karachi on Saturday…. Markets in many places were forced to pull down their shutters as life came to a halt.

Dangerous tensions … between these two ethnic groups simmer constantly in the mega city…. They increased in recent weeks when the MQM raised the issue of Talibanisation….

The holding of a joint press conference by Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza and leaders of the MQM and ANP was an encouraging step taken by the Sindh government. Coalition partners categorically said that no one would be allowed to disturb the city’s peace.

Karachi is braving an unchecked inflow of people which is creating a serious problem in Pakistan’s business capital. A large population of Afghans has settled in thickly populated areas. No registration is carried out and the government does not have details as to why they have come and what they are doing here. A large number of illegal aliens … coming into this city … were getting national identity cards … and no one was looking into the matter. This situation has created many fears and apprehensions about law and order. The increase in crime in the city is a manifestation of the same trend.

In fact no serious attempt was made to register the Afghans and recover arms.…The law and order situation in Karachi is a very serious issue as coalition partners have big political stakes in this regard. It was their duty to observe restraint as Saturday’s violence has once again given the impression that it is easy to disturb the law and order of this huge metropolis. But it is very difficult to establish some kind of lasting harmony…. This can only be achieved when coalition partners who are direct stakeholders in this city rise above party politics.

People too deserve a safer living environment. To restore peace in Karachi, there is an urgent need to conduct an operation without resorting to any discrimination to recover arms and flush out Afghan and other illegal migrants. Karachi’s political players need to play a role. All parties without any political considerations should extend their cooperation so that this business hub can be made into an arms-free zone. There should be no political expediency on the question of flushing out illegal immigrants and recovering arms which is the root cause of the disturbed law and order and … the eruption of violence…. This should be made clear to the people … as it is the only solution to Karachi’s unfortunate tendency to erupt into violence unexpectedly. — (Nov 30)

— Selected and translated by Sohail Sangi.