In a showdown that was seen coming, at least 33 people were killed and scores injured in Karachi today in clashes set off by the arrival of the chief justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court.
Forget CNN, please read these messages from the field.
MQM thugs doing what they do best....
Exactly... for all their protestations to the contrary, and for all their claims to be representing the hard done by, downtrodden masses, and for all the middle-class prententions of their leadership, the MQM has been consistently pro-establishment all these years... they were part of the PML-N "landslide" government in 1997-1999, they have always been anti-PPP, and now they are Mush's hired thugs... recall that when Mush went campaigning for that glorious referendum in 2002, it was the MQM which organized his rallies in Karachi... A very heartening development amidst all the gloom... ANP and PPP took out a joint procession which was attacked by the MQM thugs... if these two parties can put aside their differences and cobble up a coalition in Pakhtunkhwa, we will definitely see an MMA defeat later this year...
A question being raised on a number of other blogs: who in their right minds would support and vote for these thugs? A couple of minutes of Altaf Bhai's telephone sermons should cure one of any loyalty towards him and his band of jokers... yet they maintain their vote bank... how and why?
Umar: loyalty to the MQM is about a lot lot more than loyalty to Altaf Husain. I know and have met a lot of people -- believe me, a LOT -- who are very critical of Altaf Husain and others in the MQM leadership, but come election time vote for the party. Because (and the MQM's voter base is hardly unique on this front) the issue has become one of identity -- and the MQM's voters do not feel their interests are represented at all by other political parties, and thus their support for the MQM comes to transcend notions of personal satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the party itself or with individuals. The other factor to consider is: the MQM is seen as an "ethnic" party, but from the perspective of many that I have met in Karachi, the PPP too is simply seen as an "ethnic" party, and in a contest between two ethnicities conceptualized as mutually exclusive, it is isn't hard to see how and why people would vote for "their" group identity...
Interesting comment...http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/urdu/2007/05/post_190.html
I posted on this yesterday. It was nightmarish--I had friends in the Aaj TV newsrooms who were freaking out and calling me; I could hear the gunshots and the screams. It was truly nightmarish. I used to be pro-Musharraf, but after watching this, I can't help but wonder at the type of person who would let this happen.