Dealing with the aftermath

As evident from the public reaction, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto is the most tragic event that has hit this country since the hanging of her father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, nearly twenty-nine years ago.
It evoked anger and anguish across party lines, and unsurprisingly, the PPP workers, better known as 'Jiyalas' for their political fervour and unquestioned loyalty to the Bhutto name, immediately took to the streets to vent their feelings. As the violent reaction started to unfold all over the country, the government seemed to have grasped the gravity of the situation but not completely.
The President himself presided over a high level meeting and later came on the television to express sorrow and declare three-day official mourning for the departed leader. Unfortunately, however, the government failed to take the necessary measures to deal with the madness that followed.
The PPP being a countrywide party, violent reaction spilled out everywhere, from the backwaters of the Frontier Province and parts of Balochistan to big and small cities of Punjab. Understandably, the reaction was the strongest and most violent in the fallen leader's home province of Sindh. What is not understandable, though, is the manner in which the government decided to stand aside and let the rioters and looters take control of the streets.
The first two days after the tragedy claimed the lives of 40 people and injuries to at least 53 others, while the economic loss ran into billions of rupees. According to the interior ministry spokesman, Brigadier Javed Cheema, (Retd) rioters had torched 174 banks, more than 900 shops and office buildings, 370 cars, 78 bogies and 18 railway stations.
It is not hard to imagine the plight of the passengers who were dumped on the railway stations with no means or money to reach their destinations, or the anxiety of business people and daily wage earners due to complete stoppage of work. Exporters had their own worry as KCCI President Shamim Shamsi explained that exports had been completely halted due to the violence in Karachi and unavailability of labour and transport. And, of course, many suffered in silence unable to cope with medical or other emergencies.
Apparently, the government policy was to let the party workers vent their anger so as to avoid confrontation that could lead to violence. Which would be an admirable thought but for the fact that at times like this miscreants tend to exploit the situation for their own dirty ends. Surely, those who attacked and looted the banks, or those who broke into a prison and set free as many as 100 criminals were not PPP mourners.
When it became obvious that the protesters were harming other people's lives and businesses the government should have intervened to provide protection. Where it acted things remained under control. As per the Sindh Home Minister's claim, for instance, timely action of the law enforcement agencies managed to avert 50 percent of the damage. He also said they protected the National Refinery, ports and railway stations that came under attack.
It is plain that the provincial government showed rank incompetence in the face of public fury. Or it misread the situation entirely, probably on the basis of a misleading comparison. The reasoning perhaps was that if the violent death of the PPP's most revered founding leader, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto could pass off without any major upheaval the present tragedy would also pass off without causing a dangerous law and order situation. No one seems to have thought of the impending threat at the level it unleashed itself; otherwise, the least that could, and should, have been done was imposition of curfew in the worst affected areas.
As regards the comparison, when senior Bhutto was sent to the gallows the country was in the grip of a brutal dictatorship, which had no democratic pretensions. Thousands of party workers as well as Bhutto's heirs were imprisoned in a horrendous clamp-down. Those who remained free and went out to protest had to face the full might of the state. The times and conditions are different now. Benazir was killed in the midst of a vigorous electoral campaign, her motivated partymen already mobilised in a combative mode. They were not going to accept their latest martyr quietly.