Mirza's thunderous fury

Dr Zulfiqar Mirza has lived up to his reputation; he was enigmatic, dramatic and furious during most of his 100-minute conference at the Karachi Press Club on Sunday. His targets ranged from the MQM to Rehman Malik to Sindhi nationalists, and his disclosures about them he claimed, were veracious and truthful - his hand placed on the Holy Quran most of the time.
He had come to the KPC armed with a ream of documents as proof of his allegations and accusations and would go into ample detail. Still he was not telling the whole truth; he was telling only his part of the story, the other half left hanging short of his comment. If he knew all that he was now disclosing why he didn't do that when he was the ruling coalition's most powerful point man in Sindh and in his own assessment he held 80 percent of the provincial power clout.
His assertion that all this time he had kept the relevant quarters fully updated hardly deserves credibility, for nothing noticeably happened as the follow-up. But that said the fact cannot be denied that he has stirred the waters of Sindh like no one ever did.
His material evidence may not pass the admissibility test set by a court of law, but it would be naïve to think that his assertions made under the oath of Holy Quran would go unnoticed by the man in the street - as his stance draws strength, albeit vicariously, by his abdication of position of senior minister in the Sindh cabinet, and resignation from the provincial assembly membership and the PPP central executive.
It's rather poignant to note that Zulfiqar Mirza's thunder and fury was let loose on the eve of suo motu hearing by the Supreme Court on the law and order situation in Karachi. Equally telling is the fact that only a few days ahead of his dramatic disclosures Chief of Army Staff General Kayani had received an extensive briefing on the grim situation in Karachi, which the army top brass had earlier this month described extremely injurious to the national economy and had offered to be of help should the government deem fit.
Mirza wants to be a party to the court proceedings, a possibility that would tend to give his disclosures a constitutional context. Given that the MQM has refuted his assertions and that the government accepted his resignation from the cabinet instantly - as Information Minister Firdous Awan was taking pains to declare his action as his personal and not of the PPP - the damage Dr Mirza caused to the PPP-MQM warm-up in one fell swoop cannot be underestimated.
We don't think, barring extraordinary developments, Dr Mirza's sensational disclosures are likely to upset the system and sabotage the erstwhile Sindh ruling coalition's return to the centre stage. But the questions he posed about its leaders' patriotism would nonetheless remain.
And his narrative on the role of Interior Minister Rahman Malik, whom he dubbed as the biggest threat to Pakistan and a "compulsive liar", is not likely to die out any time soon, either. All along there has been this talk of foreign forces trying to break up Pakistan, but we don't think there would be many takers of his assertion.
To suggest that Dr Zulfiqar Mirza played pranks only to save and secure President Zardari's Sindh Card from falling into the hands of nationalists by cursing the MQM as killer of the Sindhis may not be right. True, he did hold the MQM responsible for all the bloodletting that has been going on in Karachi for so long and he had come to the press conference with proof on that claim. But he was telling only half the truth, as he was conspicuously silent about the role of other players in destroying the peace of Karachi.
While he thoroughly thrashed the MQM leadership, he offered no mentionable solution to restore Karachi's peace and tranquillity - something the other stakeholders too are woefully short of. No doubt the real challenge before the national leadership is to come up with a pragmatic approach to resolve the Karachi imbroglio, taking into account the mega city's cosmopolitan character, ethnic diversity and its contentious politics.
Now that the apex court has taken up this issue we think it would urge that it set up a high-powered commission which should not only fully investigate the city's crime scene but also propose action against the guilty irrespective of their social, political and official status. It's heartening to know that the court proceedings would continue without break and that almost all the parties and entities who have stakes in a peaceful and tension-free Karachi have offered to join the court proceedings.