Magar ün ghamoñ ko maeñ kyaa kahooñ jo khüshee ke naam se aae haeñ?

The images on our TV screens yesterday continue to haunt me.

The artificiality and the ridiculousness of the Islamabad event where it was not even considered necessary to disguise the fact that people had been brought in from far and wide, often with little or no choice of refusal to participate when commanded by their chaudhries.

Karachi has seen violence before. Worse, too. But the inaction of the police was a phenomenon never seen on such a large scale - now made visible, thanks to the power of the new media.

Aaj TV under siege, viewed by people around the world, appealing for help to "everyone except the President and the PM" ... and the total lack of response, except for the remarkably stupid comments of some of the higher ups. Faintly reminiscent of the yet-to-be-solved mystery (hahaha!) of the recent police attack on Geo, na?

As you can see from this BBC website image, this made our beloved President very, very sad:

I think the protestors and the CJ supporters (many riding the bandwagon, obviously, for their own political gains) goofed. Their strategy should have been to call off the visit and the jubilee celebrations at the last minute, postponing them for 3-4 days later. That would have pulled the rug from under the feet of the government and its supporters. It would have been impossible for them to rechedule their large events at such short notice ... or to postpone them to coincide with the CJs changed visit date without exposing their designs.

Things don't bode well ... not just for Karachi but for the country. We may be in for a long hot summer again.

Here's what Physicist Pervez Hoodbhoy has to say. [This is a PDF I have just received.]