Cancel My Last Ordinance!

By Ghazala Akbar

If events in the city of Karachi over the past few weeks with the issuance and cancellations of ordinances have left you in a state of bewildering confusion, please don’t worry: we have been here before. In the good old days of General Zia-ul-Haq the title of CMLA, Chief Martial Law Administrator served a dual purpose. Such was the schizophrenic nature of governance with orders being issued and re-issued that CMLA also meant Cancel My Last Announcement.

Confusion, what confusion? Here’s the story so far: The MQM, the dominant political party in Karachi quit the coalition with the ruling PPP in the centre over a wrangle for seats in the Azad Kashmir elections. Why is the MQM interested in Azad Kashmir? Simple. Because of its success in the Gilgit – Baltistan elections it wants a national stage.  During the earthquake of 2005, the MQM had earned a lot of goodwill in the Northern Areas with relief efforts. Now it wants to cash in and seek a wider base.

The PPP of course prides itself as being the only National party with representation in all four provinces. Naturally it does want any upstart challengers to the title. Besides, it had already won over the PMLQ to its side and didn’t feel the need to placate the MQM with the same intensity as before. Miffed at being side-lined, the MQM left in a huff to sit in the same opposition benches recently vacated by the PMLQ.

Meanwhile 800 miles away in Karachi the message rang loud and clear. If we are not friends and allies in the Centre then we are not friends and allies in Karachi either. Hence the MQM Governor of Sindh, toeing the party line sent in his ‘resignation’ to the Centre leaving behind an empty chair and a vacant post.

Even village-idiots know that an empty seat in Pakistani politics is an oxymoron. Chairs are to be sat upon and occupied, not left vacant. As soon as he was out, the PPP tiptoed in. And while the cat was away the mice began to play. An acting Governor was immediately sworn in. Before the MQM could even blink the incumbent activated the power button on the hot seat. Out came the favourite tool of dictators: an Ordinance. Now why do we need government by ordinance when there is a provincial legislature in session? Well, because the democratic process takes too long and, besides, this was no ordinary Ordinance.

Abracadabra! With one wave of the magic wand the ‘acting’ Governor restored the British era system of local government bringing in the old office of the District Commissioner, the ‘Maa-Baap’ of the people. Not by any means a bad system– but one that had been done away with by Gen. Musharraf and replaced in 2001 by the elected system of Nazims or ‘Nazimocracy’. This form of local government had worked well under the MQM and had given the party considerable political leverage and electoral advantage.

But what’s sauce for the Goose isn’t necessarily sauce for the Gander. The PPP in Sindh were keen to see the back of the Nazims because with the MQM in control, the urban centres of Karachi and Hyderabad were out of its ambit. A District Commissioner, however powerful, can be controlled and transferred if he doesn’t toe the line. Not so a Nazim, who is a holder of elective office and can be thrown out only by his electors. The restoration of the Local Bodies act was, naturally, a bone of contention between the two. But the underhand, yet perfectly legal manner in which the ordinance was issued in the Governor’s absence was indicative of the state of their uneasy relationship: with friends like this, who needs enemies!

While both parties shouted foul accusing each other in turn of wanting to continue a system instituted by a dictator or bringing back a system of the overbearing colonial Raj, all hell broke loose in certain parts of Karachi. Mysterious snipers from their vantage points began firing indiscriminately or committing acts of arson. This mayhem continued unabated for several days and another player in the Karachi power-game, the ANP also joined in the shouting. Just who was killing whom and why, nobody would say but the perpetrators were deemed to be criminal elements, land grabbers and mafia dons fighting for their piece of turf, or so they said.

The Interior Minister of course had his own quaint theories. Some of the dead he said were not the victims of target killings, but of lovers’ quarrels! Irate wives and ex- girlfriends were apparently hiring hit-men to avenge the unfaithfulness of their men folk! The ubiquitous ‘hidden hand’ was also blamed. Order was temporarily restored with behind- the -scenes negotiations and inter-continental telephone calls. The PPP did a u-turn, graciously conceding two seats to the MQM in the Azad Kashmir Assembly. End of story? No way!

The brokered peace was broken yet again by a volley of verbal bullets hailing from a minister in the Sindh cabinet shooting from the hip. Some choice words regarding the MQM leader and his supporters were spouted in full view of TV cameras. His outburst was greeted by another hail of bullets in which 18 bystanders lost their lives. Apologies were tendered but the damage had been done triggering yet another round of violence and more lives lost. The Interior Minister added his two-bit by stating that guns with Israeli markings had been found!

While Karachi cowered, a telephonic address from London exhorting the Army to intervene caused more alarm and panic. As nervous residents rushed to stock up on supplies, there  were more fiery statements, more verbal volleys. Then, lo and behold as if by magic, the Governor of Sindh was back in his job, the Commissioner system abolished and ‘Nazimocracy’  restored –but only in two areas of Sind: Karachi  and Hyderabad. Did this mean a division of Sindh on administrative lines? Before you could say ‘hey presto!’ the Government pulled another rabbit out of the hat: the Local Bodies act would encompass all of Sindh and elections would be held in the near future. Problem solved. Back to square one and the status quo. Crisis, what crisis? It’s business as usual.

No doubt the President and the political leadership of the parties need a pat on their back for their political sagacity and wise leadership in ‘saving’ Karachi. No doubt, there is a need to put all this behind us and move on. But certain nagging questions of conscience remain:  Why was the crisis created in the first place? What was the need for this political brinkmanship? Is politics more important than human lives? What of the broken lives of those who have lost their bread-earners, their homes and livelihoods?

While our elected representatives squabbled like fish-wives, it is worth remembering that more than three hundred people were brutally killed. Why? Nobody knows. They were not killed by American Drones. There was no epidemic, no natural calamity. There will be no commissions to investigate their deaths, no eulogies for their poor, nasty, brutish, short lives. And unlike the Local Bodies Act, they cannot be resurrected. No issuance of ordinances can conjure them back to life again.

Here is their Epitaph: Cancel My Life Allah! I had the misfortune to be living in Karachi.