As they say that words and tears cannot flow together. You either weep or you write. You either mourn or you cry it out. Crisis ridden Pakistan is watching new tragedies every day. Every day seems to be full of despondency and gloom. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto has only darkened the shadows more.
Its easy to put blame of looting, arson and firing on the miscreants as it was easy to put the blame of Benazir’s assassination on Al-Qaeda leader of Waziristan. But was that small child a miscreant who was running away with a bottle of jam in his hand, while the mob was looting and burning a store in Karachi? All the newspapers published that snapshot with different captions, but really that doesn’t need a caption or explanation.
It’s true that miscreants exploited the situation, but its also true that majority of the attackers on banks, shops, stores, government offices and trains were common people of Pakistan. Its that populace who vent their anger over price hikes, hoarding, PML-Q, terrorism and acute poverty. Its that populace who tried to grasp something for themselves while the opportunity lasted. They tried to accumulate some bread and butter along with some cash for some months to come to feed their children.
Why even talk about ethics and morality? Man forgets every rule, principle, ethics, morals when his children are hungry for two days, and he hasn’t got anything to clothe them or get their treatment. Its easy to talk about poverty while sitting in posh E-sector of Islamabad, and its quite another ballgame to really suffer through it in Sukkur, Mardan, Gilgit, Gojra, or elsewhere for that matter.
Infrastructure in Pakistan, especially in interior Sindh isn’t spectacular and worthwhile, but something is better than nothing. What exactly people of Hyderabad, Nowshero Feroze, Ghotki, Sanghar, Meharpur, Nawabshah, Thatta, Badin, Larkana, and other other parts achieved by arsoning and looting their own markets, exchanges, banks and stores? Now in most of those cities, there no banking services, no viable business activities, no communication, and the life is still very rudimentary.
For the majority of these people, there is no difference. Before 27th of December, they didn’t have any cash to deposit or withdraw from banks, they didn’t have any cash to buy anything from shops and stores, and they didn’t have phone to call through exchanges, and they had nowhere to go.
On 27th December, they took their revenge. The aftermaths of Benazir’s assassination go way beyond the grief and it’s basically a vivid commentary on the performance of present regime.
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