During the Karachi unrest case hearing, there were frequent references of no-go areas in the city. Such a repetitive argument forced the superior court judges to make up their mind on delimitation of constituencies across the city. The court deemed this action as a way to break the monopoly of certain political parties (read MQM). The court also proposed to depute armed soldiers to oversee the re-confirmation of electoral lists.
However, events of Dec. 18 tell some other story. Yes, there are no-go areas in Karachi — not for political works but for health workers. Four lady health workers were gunned down in cold blood in Pashtun majority localities in Karachi on Wednesday. Their fault: These unfortunate ladies were part of the team administering polio drops to children in Karachi’s rural areas.
Karachi has not seen this kind of madness until internally displaced people (IDPs) from FATA and some from Swat started arriving in their thousands from 2005 onward. Most of them got accommodated in shantytowns in Karachi’s rural areas, re-creating the environment from where they came from. Along with IDPs came the tribal culture and belief that polio drops are being administered at the behest of the West to sterilize Muslim boys.
People of Karachi should reject such mentality. Pakistan is one of the only three countries (others are Afghanistan and Nigeria) where polio cases are on the rise while elsewhere in the world this contagious crippling disease is on retreat. Should we request suo motto action by the Supreme Court to force the government to take some proactive action to make the polio campaign safe for volunteers who are risking their lives for the sake of their nation’s future generations. — Masood Khan, Jubail