Protest @ press club, Karachi

Hurridly organized, loosly knit but touching, the protest done today at the press club in Karachi was a thrill to attend for me. It started at about 3pm with a press conference inside the press club which funnily enough I had to talk my way into as I did not have a bonafide “journaalist” card, at one moment I even thought of telling the gate keeper I am a blaager but by the look on his face and the time on my watch neither would have been feasible.

Inside was a hotch potch of wires and suspicious looking duffel bags all of which contained cameras thank god, and a push of hot sweaty cameramen as they jostled for posiiton, funnily enough even in the middle of the press conference. i swear i think Pakistani media is the dumbest of them all as they cued, waved and screeched to each other all while arguing and pushing for place while the speaker was speaking. It was so bad tha tone of the ladies of the women’s action committee got quite pissed and told the people to please observe some sort of decorum. However the speeches were good, hard hitting and very passionate. I thought the speaker from the Pakistan medical board was pretty intense and got a due clapping at the end.

After the insane question and answer session that followed in which the media made bigger fools out of themselves by asking things like “madam kia aap samajhti hain ke ye saza sahi thi” ummm yea thats why we are all here doofus, seriously….we all trooped out to be greeted by a chorus of people shouting slogans in the favor of ummm bugti of all the people, apparently the protest had coincided with the balochistan cause as well.

So we all gathered togather and then the banners were raised and the “nara bazi” started.  The numbers seemed quite decent with a lot of women from different walks of life participating as well as a lot of journalists and some tv personna’s like “George” as well. I spotted 3 blaggers aside from myself in Sabeen, Awab and Tazeen, if there were more I certainly didnt know them. After about 20 minutes of rip roaring narays by the civil society and mazdoor jihad lo and behold a truck laden with “Sunni tehreek” activists complete with giant loudspeakers and mikes appeared to stand in front fo us and sing naats on top of their voices “Sarkar ki amad” kind of stuff. They kept insisting they were with us but still managed to try to drown our voices out quite frequently, however it was heartning to see the people standing firm in front of them and raising their own protest.

All in all we might not have had the numbers seen in Islamabad today, but we still managed to register a due protest against the barbarity on display yesterday. Whether that video was 1 or 2 or 5 months old, the civil society made their displeaure felt quite vividly today sending a clear message to the government and the barbarian hordes up north that these kind of actions are not only intolerable but will deem an equal response.

Next to come is a huge protest rally organized by MQM’s womens wing for the same purpose tommorow, we must all participate and raise our voice in as many forums as we can against the march of evil into our cities, I commend all the parties involved in making these and the protests to come possible in all the cities of Pakistan, long live sanity and long live Pakistan.