Sabri’s murder and our silence

Assassination of a world-fame qawwal, Amjad Sabri, has shaken Pakistan and its soft image the world-over at a time when we were making tall claims of success in operation like the one made in his marathon speech by Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah. He could have written his name in history had he resigned on this very murder of someone like Sabri, which is the murder of the art and of a generation. His murder was a wake-up call for a civil society to break its silence, which by and large remained silent or divided over the killing of some top professionals and social workers in this very city.

The presence of thousands of mourner in his funeral and condemnations on social media from all over the world showed his popularity. It has shaken society and people from cross section of society, reacting in their own way, but with divided voices. He was a Sufi and Malang, and such people don't like to take security as they want to live close to the heart of the people. His funeral procession was a slap in the face of rulers and a no-confidence in the claims about success of operation against terrorists.

Sabri was a soft image of Pakistan, a Sufi in his own right and someone admired by millions. So, when someone like him is assassinated in broad daylight at crowded places like Liaquatabad, and assassins manage to escape, it raises questions about the so-called security measures on which billions of rupees had been spent every year.

Society reacts in its own way and his fellow artists reacted by filing a petition before the police. Had it been a collective voice of all professionals, it would have been more powerful. A group of artistes, led by Fakhr-e-Alam, said, "either provide equal security to all or make the so-called VVIPs, VIPs vulnerable too."

The concerns and fears of the group were, perhaps, misunderstood. I believe he may soon pay the price as chairman of the Sindh Censor Board, at least this is what I have learnt from official quarters. Credit must be given to him for "breaking the silence”.

Irrespective of the motive behind the murder, political, religious or personal, the fact remains that it has once again exposed the tall claims of "operation's success stories”. All the good work could go in vain with one high-profile killing. Sabri successfully took ahead the legacy of his father, Ghulam Fareed Sabri and uncle Maqbool Sabri qawwal.

It’s not only a murder of a qawwal or an artiste but of the art itself. So, the reaction from the showbiz community was natural. But the question is why only artistes went to the police station and lodged a ‘symbolic complaint’. After all, he was people's qawwal and an unusual talent of this country.

His murder came two days after the high profile kidnapping of Barrister Awais Shah, son of chief justice of Sindh High Court Justice Sajjad Ali Shah. The administrative machinery from Karachi to Islamabad was shocked. The incident put a serious question mark over the capacity of our law-enforcement agencies.

If the Sindh home minister and IGP admit that most of the CCTV cameras were non-functional, the question is that where all the money has gone? Perhaps, spent on very expensive vehicles of VVIPs and VIPs. One high-profile VIP of Sindh costs the provincial government around Rs 10 million annually.

Yes, VIPs must get high security because some of them are at risk but not at the cost of others, who become more insecure and get frustrated when a motorcade of ministers and VIP passed in front of him or he has to stop at signal, at times, for 20 to 25 minutes.

Sabri's murder has not only saddened his huge following but also reminded the civil society that its time to speak out and break the silence, because if we do not speak now, there will be no one left to speak for the disadvantaged.

In the last few years, many doctors, lawyers, religious scholars and journalists had been killed. Why the civil society failed to convert its protest into a movement? When doctors had been killed in large numbers, only doctors went on strike; when lawyers were attacked, only lawyers observed strikes in courts; when teachers and professors were attacked, only classes were boycotted; when journalists were killed only journalists brought out processions. Even when religious scholars were attacked, only religious parties took to the street and when political leaders or workers became target, only that particularly party protested. There was no one to speak for a common man, when he or she became the victim.

It reminded me of the editor of a Sri-Lankan weekly, The Sunday Leader, Lasanntha Wickrematunge, who had predicted that he would be killed by the then rulers. He wrote an editorial, three days before his death and as he came out of his office and left for his home, he was killed on January 9, 2009.

He quoted few lines of a German poet, Martin Niemöller, who had remained in Hitler's concentration camp for many years. It said, "First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me, and there was no one left for me to speak."

Civil society came too to the street during the lawyer's movement but then it got divided and each profession mourned its own professionals.

Qaim Ali Shah has a reputation of an honest and clean politician, something rare in this society. But to be clean is one thing and to be a good administrator is another. If under his nose, some qualified professionals and social workers, and artistes like Amjad Sabri had been killed, who would believe in his three hours speech which, otherwise, was quite powerful, coming from an 80 years old veteran of 1970 parliament.

Last week, during an Iftar-dinner at the Chief Minister House, given in honour of PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while introducing me to the son of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he said: "Mazhar Sahib seems to be very angry and critical of our government."

I replied, "Is he (Bilawal) satisfied with you. Should I not be critical of what your government has done so far? Can you yourself defend it?”

It is not enough that after each incident, journalists receive a call from the CM House that the "Chief minister has taken notice of this or that killing and sought a report", or "The CM has suspended SHO or the DSP".

Now, it is time for the civil society to "break the silence" before we mourn another killing again. For the rulers, it’s just another death, another murder, another kidnapping. But, with someone like Amjad Sabri or earlier Parveen Rehman, Sabeen Mahmood, Dr Shakeel and many other professionals, who had been killed in this very city and under the nose of worthy Shah Sahib, who had claimed many a time that Karachi is a safe city now and it has returned to normality.

With someone like Amjad Sabri, it’s not the murder of one man or one artiste, it’s the murder of a generation and the soft image of Pakistan. Police may be able to arrest his killers, but we will not be able to get someone like Sabri for very long time.

The writer is a senior columnist and analyst of Geo, The News and Jang