Powerful foreign, local forces behind Ebad’s return
Salahuddin Haider
Thursday, July 21, 2011 - Karachi—Powerful forces, foreign and local, have been behind Isrhatul Ebad’s return to power and they have undertaken to see that MQM’s demands were taken care of in future, well placed sources indicated here today.
Whatever the PPP front rankers may say, the fact remains that the ISI chief General Shuja Pasha was principally instrumental in restoring peace by ordering the rangers to take control of Kati Pahari, and several other sensitive areas in Karachi, after 20 innocent souls had perished and nearly 40 vehicles torched within 24 hours of Zulfiqar Mirza’s outbursts against migrants from India in 1947,
The argument that Home Minister Manzoor Wassan had given the orders, is also true but only to the extent of being just a catalyst. General Pasha, who had earlier been requested by Altaf Hussain on telephone from London to help extinguish a fire which may have caused havoc in Sindh, did exercise his authority. Until he had acted, the Sindh government, including its chief minister, who is the chief executive of the province, were mere onlookers, and never wanted to take control of the situation.
It was army which came to the rescue of both the government, and the people of Sindh, and helped sanity return to the area. Likewise a foreign power which has considerable interest in the region, in association with the army and its intelligence agencies, played a leading role in bringing back the Governor who, merely to save the President’s position, had left the country soon after resigning a post he had held for 8 years. The Governor has built up an image which is acknowledged by friends and foes alike.
The business community and all and sundry have held opinion of him. Even PPP recognizes his ability to control a solution. The Governor left for Dubai only to avoid a constitutional mess in the country. Had he remained in Pakistan, the office of the Governor would have become questionable. He had resigned and till his resignation is accepted, the acting governor could not have been appointed. It would given rise to a constitutional problem.The moment he landed back in Karachi, Nisar Khuhro, seized to hold office and returned to his original position of Sindh Assembly Speaker. Foreigners believed that the Governor had done extremely well, was cool and efficient. He needed to be brought back so that urdu speaking population felt secured.Soon after returning to his coveted office, Dr Ishrat ul Ebad ordered the KESC to take care of the power outages in Karachi, which apart from causing problems for the people, was hitting industrial progress, a situation, demanding serious handling. The KESC was promised gas from Suit Southern for its power plants, and also given money to help restore its financial health.Karachiites wanted relief was the Governor’s order, and KESC was asked to comply with it. This showed how competent the Governor is.
Secondly, MQM still has serious reservations about restoration of commissionerate system in Sindh and division of Karachi into five distircts. New delimitations of constituencies for national and provincial assemblies, their population ratio, the demographic changes, all are vital questions. Surely MQM will not take it sitting back. It will have its own views about the future demographic situations in the new districts, which it even may ask to be abolished.
How will MQM react, its spokesmen can answer the question better. But these are burning questions and need amicable settlement to the satisfaction of MQM which held complete sway in Karachi, Hyderabad, and several other areas of Sindh since 1988. These issues need to be resolved. Only then possibly can the MQM think of returning to the government. The PPP wants two third majority in the parliament to look after the constitutional issues on the question of demands for new provinces like Hazara, Seraiki, Bahawalpur etc. MQM has made it clear that it does not want Sindh to be divided. That has helped quieten the nationalist parties to great extent. Those who had brought back the Governor, may oversee how the ticklish problems are handled and even resolved.
Whatever the PPP front rankers may say, the fact remains that the ISI chief General Shuja Pasha was principally instrumental in restoring peace by ordering the rangers to take control of Kati Pahari, and several other sensitive areas in Karachi, after 20 innocent souls had perished and nearly 40 vehicles torched within 24 hours of Zulfiqar Mirza’s outbursts against migrants from India in 1947,
The argument that Home Minister Manzoor Wassan had given the orders, is also true but only to the extent of being just a catalyst. General Pasha, who had earlier been requested by Altaf Hussain on telephone from London to help extinguish a fire which may have caused havoc in Sindh, did exercise his authority. Until he had acted, the Sindh government, including its chief minister, who is the chief executive of the province, were mere onlookers, and never wanted to take control of the situation.
It was army which came to the rescue of both the government, and the people of Sindh, and helped sanity return to the area. Likewise a foreign power which has considerable interest in the region, in association with the army and its intelligence agencies, played a leading role in bringing back the Governor who, merely to save the President’s position, had left the country soon after resigning a post he had held for 8 years. The Governor has built up an image which is acknowledged by friends and foes alike.
The business community and all and sundry have held opinion of him. Even PPP recognizes his ability to control a solution. The Governor left for Dubai only to avoid a constitutional mess in the country. Had he remained in Pakistan, the office of the Governor would have become questionable. He had resigned and till his resignation is accepted, the acting governor could not have been appointed. It would given rise to a constitutional problem.The moment he landed back in Karachi, Nisar Khuhro, seized to hold office and returned to his original position of Sindh Assembly Speaker. Foreigners believed that the Governor had done extremely well, was cool and efficient. He needed to be brought back so that urdu speaking population felt secured.Soon after returning to his coveted office, Dr Ishrat ul Ebad ordered the KESC to take care of the power outages in Karachi, which apart from causing problems for the people, was hitting industrial progress, a situation, demanding serious handling. The KESC was promised gas from Suit Southern for its power plants, and also given money to help restore its financial health.Karachiites wanted relief was the Governor’s order, and KESC was asked to comply with it. This showed how competent the Governor is.
Secondly, MQM still has serious reservations about restoration of commissionerate system in Sindh and division of Karachi into five distircts. New delimitations of constituencies for national and provincial assemblies, their population ratio, the demographic changes, all are vital questions. Surely MQM will not take it sitting back. It will have its own views about the future demographic situations in the new districts, which it even may ask to be abolished.
How will MQM react, its spokesmen can answer the question better. But these are burning questions and need amicable settlement to the satisfaction of MQM which held complete sway in Karachi, Hyderabad, and several other areas of Sindh since 1988. These issues need to be resolved. Only then possibly can the MQM think of returning to the government. The PPP wants two third majority in the parliament to look after the constitutional issues on the question of demands for new provinces like Hazara, Seraiki, Bahawalpur etc. MQM has made it clear that it does not want Sindh to be divided. That has helped quieten the nationalist parties to great extent. Those who had brought back the Governor, may oversee how the ticklish problems are handled and even resolved.
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