"Please forgive me. I am sorry," said Altaf Hussain, to be promptly responded by Shireen Mazari, "It's OK, but don't do it again". And thus came to an end one of most bizarre exchanges of nasty barbs. So in a way the song has ended but the melody must linger on - because the dirty linen they washed in public by seeking foreign intervention in their verbal duel would take some time to dry. That the denouement of this spell-binding drama should be so pathetic is beyond one's imagination. By all reported accounts a battle royale was in the making; the PTI was to come to MQM heartland, Karachi and the MQM had warned 'no way'. That contending political parties should confront each other on the street is a notion that scares the man on the street, because it is he who becomes the victim of the sit-ins and road-blocks. Hopefully, the spirit of forgive and forget obtained in the wake of this development would last. No one did anticipate such a happy ending to this theatrics, but it came - given the propitious developments happening the same time. Thanks to the hallmark of power-driven pragmatism, by MQM and PPP, an understanding had by then emerged that the former would once again join the government. The decision to forge yet another coalition with the PPP was taken to "promote peace, tranquillity, brotherhood and reconciliation" in Sindh, says the MQM. The PPP supremo Asif Ali Zardari only smiles, while the people wonder if Karachi and other cities were peaceful earlier when the two were coalition partners. One other propitious development materialised in the suburbs of the country's capital when former governor of Punjab Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar didn't disappoint the crystal ball gazers and joined the PTI. He could not deliver as governor as 'there were so many obstacles', as if he never read the constitution, which places the provincial head in a big chair but no work to do. Equally surprising is his unfamiliarity with the Sharifs' concept of loyalty.
One would hate to think that it is the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report on the Baldia Town factory tragedy that tends to soften MQM's hard-line stance while dealing with its political rivals. On the face of it, the said report suffers from quite a few imperfections, particularly its timing. Given the enormity of the tragedy, the question being asked is why such a critical piece of evidence was not made part of the case in the court, and why now. Somehow, one finds this timing against the backdrop of the ongoing law-enforcing agencies' vigorous operation against criminals, a part of which tends to look like MQM-specific. On the other hand, by releasing the report, the law-enforcing establishment may be trying to deflect the MQM charge of high-handedness and victimisation. Then there are questions about the legal value of the report as uncorroborated independent evidence in the eyes of law. But the dilemma for the MQM is to clear itself by the court of law of the charge that its workers set the factory on fire when their extortion demand was not met. Not only that, the MQM should clear its name as it is necessary also for its image and popularity among the people who have been sending it to the nation's elected assemblies year after year. That nobody was charged and punished for the brutal killings of some 256 innocent factory workers for more than two years is nothing but a sardonic comment on the state of affairs in the country. The argument that nobody was punished, not even identified and charged, in such cases cannot be a plausible position. But that said, we cannot resist saying that, if the past is any guide, then nothing would come out of this JIT report too. Here the ballgame is different - we had said in this space before and repeat that the country's political elite is 'dancing on broken glass'. The day Chaudhry Sarwar arrived at a new pasture in the heart of the nation's capital, F-10 Markaz, someone was shot to death as he emerged from the bank with Rs one million in his bag and in suburban Sihala robbers looted another bank. Elsewhere in the country the situation was not better either. Last but not least, the army and political elite are said to be on the same page, and only time will tell whether or not they are on the same page.