Ahsan Raza won’t vote

We do not know if Ahsan Raza Rizvi, a small businessman dealing in garments, had any interest in politics or if he felt connected to the election campaign. Did he even talk about politics with his friends, possibly voicing his emotional involvement with a movement or a leader?

Or, very likely, he may have been totally ignorant of the country’s politics and the affairs of the world, preoccupied with his personal affairs and the challenge of living in these troubled times.

(Another thought interrupts. Are our political parties interested in Ahsan Raza? Here, of course, I have named the name in a generic sense. He represents a certain class constituting a sizable percentage of our population. What kind of understanding do our parties have of the needs and aspirations of these people and if they have any answers to their questions?)

But why am I talking about Ahsan Raza in the past tense? This is what I am struggling to explain in the context of the present political campaigns for the February 8 elections, now almost visible on the horizon. The point is that Ahsan Raza was in the news this week – and it hurts me to talk about it.

Let me, then, put it straight, as the news was published. Consider this headline: “Man kills wife, three kids before committing suicide”. It happened in Karachi on Monday in an apartment building near the airport. Obviously, the man who first killed his wife and three kids and then committed suicide was Ahsan Raza.

Now, this headline would naturally leave you in a state of shock. You would want to learn about how and why this had happened. Not that similar tragedies had not occasionally been reported, though with fewer fatalities. Still, such human stories demand an exhaustive coverage, exploring them from various different angles.

Sadly, our media – print as well as broadcast – is not very good in dealing with the human angle when it comes to reporting large and complex incidents that arise from the prevailing social conditions. I worry about it the more because I have been a journalist for many years. Look at how the story of Ahsan Raza and his ill-fated family could not compete, in terms of media attention and space, with, say, the second marriage of an aging cricketer.

Anyhow, I would like to refer to what I read in the newspapers. The police said that Ahsan Raza shot dead his wife Nida Rizvi, their two sons, six-year-old Jibrail and four-year-old Mekail and two-year-old daughter Umme Hani. Then, he hanged himself from the ceiling fan. Five bodies were found in the sixth floor apartment. It was reported that Ahsan Raza was facing financial problems, having suffered losses in his garment business.

There was a handwritten suicide note in which he admitted to facing financial issues and saw no other way out. He said that his wife and children were innocent. He also write that a suicide note was in his laptop in a file that should be opened.

On Tuesday, the police retrieved the file written in Roman Urdu. It related to some personal and family matters and ended properly with Allah Hafiz to all “from me and my children”. He accepted the responsibility of murdering his wife and children and demanded that “no one should utter a word against my children and Nida”. There were more details, including how he had stolen the gun from someone’s shop who should not face any “mushkilat”.

As I said, there have been other murder-suicide stories in recent years. In addition, violent extremism and hate crimes have risen. However, this horrifying, heart-breaking event has taken place in the midst of an election campaign when political leaders are supposed to be talking to the people and listening to their grievances and expectations.

Actually, there is no genuine interaction between the people and the leaders and, consequently, many of the issues that relate to the daily lives and concerns of the ordinary citizens are not reflected in the pompous and manifestly unrealistic promises that are made in the campaign.

For instance, where is an informed and empathetic appreciation of the state of our society at any level in our political discourse? Did any political party take any notice of six deaths in Karachi and offer any corrective measures to heal a broken and bleeding social order? Where do people who are unable to make ends meet and who are mentally and emotionally afflicted really belong in the overall scheme of things?

We can be sure that our political leaders, in light of what they are proclaiming in their rallies and media interviews, are unable to hear the voice of the people. The kind of politics that we have has neither a heart nor a mind. And yet, the election drill has to be executed and oaths of office will be taken and more of the same will be baptised as an innovation.

Meanwhile, the election campaign has to run its course. It has a larger sense of drama this time because of how it is being engineered. But it is making more noise in the virtual world of the media than in the real lives of the people. This disconnect has diminished the relevance of what the parties and their leaders are fighting for.

In the list of issues that our political parties have shied from, there is this spectacle of the incredibly brave protest of the Baloch women, headed by Mahrang Baloch. On Tuesday, the 60-day long ‘dharna’ of the Baloch women was wound up in Islamabad. Mahrang Baloch, bitterly disappointed by the state, talked about the constant harassment of the protesters by the police. On Thursday, thousands of people welcomed the protesters in Quetta.

Political parties do not even pretend to be involved with this and a number of other issues. Apparently, no one cares when people are driven to the edge. It was Ahsan Raza’s own business to kill his family and commit suicide.

The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at: ghazi_salahuddin@hotmail.com