Rising about five stories high the point of a concrete arrow-shaped pillar pierces the skies over the intersection of Karsaz and Shahrah-e-Faisal. It is a memorial for the over 150 PPP workers and supporters who were killed on this very spot in two bomb blasts just after midnight on October 18, 2007.
They were part of a procession of thousands led by Benazir Bhutto who returned home from her self-imposed eight-year exile. Building tall pillars in the shape of party symbols is a PPP tradition. We have Teen Talwar in Clifton built by the founder of the party. In the historic 1970 general elections the sword was PPP's election symbol. In elections contested by his daughter the sword symbol was replaced by an arrow symbol. But thank heavens other political parties have not been inspired to build monuments in the shape of party symbols especially as memorials to workers and supporters who died a violent death.
One could call the graveyard in Yasinabad where MQM leaders, workers and supporters are buried, a kind of memorial. It has an imposing tomb of its one of the founders, Azim Tariq, surrounded by a sea of graves of people, mostly teenagers and young men in their early or late twenties. The headstones do not always mention how they died. They were victims of bomb blasts, torture, sniper bullets, butchered, and by what was euphemistically called extra-judicial killing, which was nothing but point blank execution without a trial by the police.
Other than Yasinabad graveyard there is no graveyard in the city that can be dubbed a party cemetery. The PPP does not have one, probably that is why it decided to build a pillar where so many party workers and supporters were killed, on the intersection of Karsaz and Shahrah-e-Faisal.
Heaven forbid building monuments at the very spot where people died a violent death becomes a vogue in this crowded city, where violent death is dealt out for all kinds of reasons besides politics. Death in traffic accidents, in ethnic conflicts, gang wars, banditry, car theft, land grab. These are some of the reasons for the endless killings that go on unabated on Karachi streets.
What would Karachi look like if everyone started erecting memorial pillars on the very spot where people have died violently? What if the Shias were to demand a monument right in the middle of M.A. Jinnah Road to mark the spot where hundreds died in bomb blasts in the Ashura procession last Muharrum? What would happen if a religio-politico party put up a memorial pillar in Nishtar Park to mark the spot where the cream of its leadership was wiped out in a bomb blast? What if pillars were built on every street and lane in congested Lyari to remember the innocent victims who died in a bloody gang war? Karachi would become a forest of pillars in awkward locations.
Is the PPP monument really a memorial to those who died in Benazir's procession or is it a political stake (literally) of a party that has no real political stake in this city? Do the hearts of party members beat in selective mourning of their own dead? This pillar seems to be pointing that way since death haunts the party and has become the colour of its politics. The party is of Shaheeds. Nahid Khan visiting the monument, went so far as to state in her emotional way that the PPP belongs to the Bhuttos. Does it? Can it never belong to anyone outside the family? Then how democratic is PPP if it has not matured politically after more than 40 years in existence.
Perhaps the PPP does not realise that this mindless devotion among the members is the reason why it does not have a strong political presence in Karachi, the capital of Sindh, the birthplace of the party. Yes, Karachi is where the party was born. It is the ANP which is slowly digging in, although at present it too does not have a big enough stake to challenge MQM's hold on the city.
Have they not wondered why the ANP is slowly gaining ground in the city while the PPP has failed? In my opinion, it is because the PPP exists for the private profit of one family.
The word "People" in its name is a farce. Only those who cling to the family prosper and they are not the common folk. There is no concern for them. If you doubt this, go and ask the families of the 150 who died in the bomb blasts at the Karsaz and Sharea Faisal intersection, for whom the arrow pillar memorial is being built.
The pillar is still under construction. It is half finished. Scaffolding still surrounds it as the slow work of fixing marble tiles continues. However, this is the first year that a proper ceremony was held to remember the tragedy and pay homage to the victims of the bomb blasts. The tragedy happened three years ago, why have they just woken up to remember the dead? The reason seems to be to emphasise PPP's presence and importance. There was a by-election for the PS-94 Orangi Town seat which fell vacant after the assassination of MQM MPA Raza Haider. Only the MQM and ANP contested (ANP withdrew from the contest at the eleventh hour) while the leading party in Sindh, the PPP did not. Therefore the party had to do something to show its importance. Hence the midnight tribute to the Karsaz tragedy victims, attended by the VIPs of the party including the sidelined Naheed Khan and her husband Safdar Abbas, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah.
There were thousands of supporters in Benazir's welcome home procession on October 18, 2007. If you discount the officials and the journalist crowd, there were less than a hundred mourners at the arrow pillar last Monday to pay tribute to the victims. Where are those thousands gone? I do not mean to imply they have left the PPP fold, but to point out that the tribute to the Karsaz victims was hastily organised for the above mentioned reason.
The whole of Karachi was shocked and mourned the tragedy at Karsaz three years ago. Any human heart would have been filled with sorrow. No one thought that their sympathy for the victims was because they were PPP supporters. They were ordinary folk happily welcoming a popular leader. Even those who were not party supporters were happy to see her return home. So why has the PPP given the tragedy only a political colour and built a monument that represents only the PPP. Most Karachiites, therefore, will see the monument as a symbol of political bigotry.