MIGHT IS RIGHT!

The Supreme Court of Pakistan Wednesday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to delimit the existing constituencies in Karachi so that no single entity or a political party could monopolize a particular area.

This news has surely called the attention of the people of the country. Political analysts as well as legal experts started expressing their views on it.  

The question is, what sort of monopoly of a particular party/group the Supreme Court is talking about and who is enjoying this monopoly in Karachi? Is it legal or illegal? If it is illegal, then did it happen that a group or party just took over the city by force illegally and started enjoying its monopoly here in the same way as Taliban did in Swat? If this is the sort of monopoly that the Supreme Court means, was any delimitation made in order to remove their monopoly from Swat? When, why to conduct an illogical experiment in Karachi? Further, will the Supreme Court also announce this sort of delimitation for Waziristan and Baluchistan where the terrorists have proved their monopolies many times in last several decades?

On the other hand, if the Supreme Court points out towards the political monopoly that emerges after democratically passing though the electoral process, then does the constitution put a ban on the party or group that secures the continuous mandate from the people again and again? If it does, is such a ban or restriction bound only to apply to Karachi? But, if not, why any demarcations were not ever demanded and made to counter the monopoly of all the parties including PPP, PML-N, PML-Q,ANP,JI, JUI-F, PML-F who have been enjoying such a monopoly in different provinces, cities, districts and areas of the country for several decades? Not only the political and religious parties, but also countless political as well as religious individual personalities have been enjoying their absolute monopoly in the different constituencies, was any delimitation made against them in the last 65 years?

If, suppose, even despite the new delimitations of Karachi, The same political yet becomes the biggest party of the city, which has been for decades what would be done to refrain it from enjoying the monopoly? Will its two or three elected MNAs and MPA`s be declared as equal to only one member of the other parties??

However, if the delimitation is made on the ethnic basis, does it not mean that we will be officially dividing Karachi on ethnically as per the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan? Will it be as per the constitution? Can such a demarcation be made in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan? Moreover, will this ethnically based political representation be limited only for holding elections or this principle will also apply to the jobs opportunities as well as authorities and powers in the district, provincial, federal administration and in the armed forces so that not a single party, group or ethnicity can enjoy the monopoly singly anywhere in the country? If such a strange and uncommon formula is applied only to Karachi, can it considered as per true justice?

In addition to this, after the new delimitation in this way, will the politics not be purely only ethnicity-centric? Previously, all those parties which are called as national, democratic and religious used to criticize MQM for being involved in ethnic politics. But, surprisingly, now they themselves are ready to do the same in Karachi on the same basis? If the people of Karachi belonging to different ethnicity officially start voting as per the ethnicity to ensure their ethnic representation in the assemblies, what is the need of any national, democratic and religious party here? We know very well that the parties of main stream had been calling this sort of politics as dirty and non-Islamic, so, after the delimitation ethnically, would they announce to keep themselves away from the politics of Karachi in future? Or yet they would get involved in the same dirty and non-Islamic politics?

When the issue of new provinces of Siraiki and Hazara emerged in the country`s politics, these were the same main stream and religious parties that were strongly opposing demands arguing that the new provinces should be made, but not on ethnic basis. The question is, how can they support the SC-ordered new delimitation on the same basis in Karachi?? Not only this, these parties also opposed, rather condemned the upraised demand of a new province in Sindh claiming that they would not tolerate any sort of division of the province at any cost, then why are they now in favor of delimiting Karachi on ethnic basis? Is Karachi not a part of Sindh?

Principally speaking, whatever policy that the Supreme Court deems fit for Karachi, why should it not also be applied to the entire Pakistan? If it is only one city is targeted, then PML-N, PTI, JI, JUI-F, PML-F, PML-Q should oppose it in the same way as they have been doing in respect of the recently passed local bodies Act claiming that there should be a uniform system for all the provinces of Pakistan.

Taking into account all these things, it is an altogether illogical, illegal, unconstitutional, undemocratic as well as non-Islamic step. However, if someone tries to enforce it just for the sake of splitting MQM`s public mandate, he will be planning to split Pakistan into more pieces.