Three parties to observe 8th anniversary of May 12 violence

Karachi
After a lull of several years, three political parties are again commemorating the anniversary of the May 12, 2007 violence in Karachi.
The Awami National Party, the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and the Sindh National Party have announced their programmes for May 12 in memory of those killed in the violence eight year ago.
That day, the fighting began when then deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhamamd Chaudhry arrived at the Karachi airport. About 50 people were killed in different parts of the city.

Rallies and public gatherings
The ANP has announced that it would organise a public gathering in City Railway Colony on May 12. Different committees were formed under the leadership of provincial general secretary Younis Buneri. ANP provincial information secretary Hameedullah Khattak said that the public gathering was aimed at commemorating the 8th death anniversary of party activists killed that day.
“The sacrifices rendered by the ANP for restoration of the judiciary on May 12 can’t be forgotten,” Khattak told The News.
The PkMAP, led by prominent Pashtun nationalist leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai, has also announced a protest walk from the Empress Market to the Karachi Press Club on May 12.
“In the past years, we had organised public gatherings in different parts of the city on May 12, but this time we are staging a protest walk,” said Nazir Jan Lala, the PkMAP provincial president.
The SNP, headed by Ameer Bhanbhro, will stage rallies and sits-in on May 12 across the province.
Dilshad Bhutto, the party’s spokesperson, said the SNP had been struggling for the provision of justice to the victims of that day.

Another watershed event
May 12th, 2007 was yet another watershed event in Karachi’s political history after the Bushra Zaidi case in 1985 that had sparked ethnic violence in the city, say political observers.
“After May 12, 2007, the city witnessed again a rise in ethno-political violence that continued till 2010,” said Imtiaz Khan Faran, a political analyst. “Hundreds of innocent people from the Pashtun and Mohajir communities have been killed in ethnic violence since then.”
In 2008 and 2009, the ANP and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, coalition partners in then Pakistan People’s Party-led provincial government, had announced separate strike calls to commemorate the anniversary.
This had compelled the Sindh government to declare a holiday on May 12.
However, the ANP did not commemorate the anniversary in the following years.
The PkMAP has been the only party that has been observing the anniversary without any break.
“We have been commemorating the martyrs of that day every year. The government did not even compensate the heirs of Mehtab Afridi, who was killed on May 12,” said Lala.
Analysts believe that these political parties are again commemorating the anniversary not only to reclaim their support bases that they have lost to other parties in the city, but also to put pressure on the MQM, which has suffered setback in the law enforcement agencies’ ongoing crackdown.
Faran noted that these parties’ sudden decision to commemorate the day after a break of many years was surprising. “Commemorating the anniversary is a good gesture, but these political parties should avoid fanning ethnic hatred in their rallies,” he added.
A section of Pashtun leaders think that the ANP has been trying again to start politics in the city on the basis of ethnic hatred.
Qasim Jan, provincial general secretary of the ANP-Wali faction, said on May 12, 2007, activists of all political parties including the PPP, the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz had come out on the streets for the restoration of the deposed judiciary that day.
“However, the ANP has been exploiting the events of that day for its narrow-minded politics, despite receiving compensation money for their slain and injured workers from the government,” he maintained.
ANP-Wali chief Begum Naseem Wali, and its Sindh leaders, met with the leadership of the MQM and the Sindh United Party at Nine Zero and Haider Manzil respectively in November last year.