Opinion Courting trouble

Rehired

Over 4,000 employees of Karachi’s power grid,whose services had been terminated,were reinstated. The News reported on January 25: “In a major breakthrough,the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) agreed to reinstate over 4,000 employees who were sacked a few days ago in a downsizing drive. The MQM arranged that these KESC employees visit its headquarters in Karachi and used the opportunity to its advantage,with The News reporting on January 26: “MQM founder,Altaf Hussain said that if incidents of street crimes and kidnapping… were not stopped in the Punjab,then a martial law should be imposed in the province. He said this while making a telephonic address from London to the recently-reinstated KESC workers who visited the MQM headquarters… He asked the people of the Punjab to support the MQM in future. He added that the MQM had entered Punjab and will prevent all such crimes like kidnapping for ransom,rape and extortion of money.”

This was bound to annoy the PMLN,which views Punjab as its pocket borough. Dawn reported PMLN and MQM traded barbs the next day in parliament: “Legislators of both parties erupted in cacophony after PMLN leader Ahsan Iqbal said that MQM’s ‘London-based leader’ was a foreign national,but was talking of military coup in Pakistan.”

Muharram over,violence remains

The News reported on January 26 of twin suicide bomb attacks in Lahore and Karachi: “Eleven people were killed in Lahore and three in Karachi when two suicide bombers blew themselves up amid tight security deployed in connection with the Chehlum of Hazrat Imam Hussain (RA)… A teenaged boy blew himself up at the Ghora Chowk,Lohari Gate,in Lahore where the security was already beefed up due to the Urs celebrations at the mausoleum of Data Sahib situated nearby. Shortly after the Lahore blast,a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden motorbike into a police van in the Malir 15 area of Karachi,killing at least three people,including two policemen and wounding four others… Witnesses said a 14-15 years old boy,wearing a shalwar kameez,came walking towards the police picket and blew himself up.”

American diplomats under fire

The Express Tribune reported on January 28 that “two cases,including one for a double murder,have been registered against US diplomats involved in a dramatic shooting and hit-and-run incident,which claimed the lives of three men in Lahore on Thursday. One diplomat has been charged for murder for killing two men on a motorbike allegedly in self defence… while a companion of the diplomat,who is also an American citizen,crushed to death a bike rider in a hit-and-run incident,following the shooting. The accused diplomat,Raymond Davis,opened fire at the two men… after which he fled from the scene. Two of his companions,who were in a Land Cruiser,tried to follow him but in an attempt to avoid a traffic jam entered the wrong side of the road and hit a motorcycle,killing one person.”