It is a balmy November day in Karachi – cool breeze, warm sun, blue skies dotted with wispy clouds. The ubiquitous cheel birds circle lazily overhead, emitting occasional trilling calls. The jarring kaw-kaw of the feisty black crow atop an electric wire or a neem trees cuts through the sound of the heavy traffic on the congested streets of this sprawling metropolis, a microcosm of Pakistan's ethnic, religious and cultural diversity. The markets are buzzing with activity today – cell phones and Internet connections hopping, schools are having their annual concerts, the middle classes are attending birthday parties and cricket matches, while the rich participate in golf tournaments.
Indeed, on the face of it, life goes on pretty much as normal here in Karachi, despite General Pervez Musharraf's announcement of emergency rule on 3 November, which plunged the country back into de facto martial law. But the general's actions have highlighted another ongoing struggle that, in the long run, will affect everyone: the struggle not for physical survival or material benefit, but for a political system of representation and accountability that will empower the people and change the exploitative status quo.
The general's Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) of 3 November suspended the Constitution and that document's enshrined fundamental rights. As such orders always do, it required the country's judges to take fresh oaths. The move ended the speculations that had been grist for the media mill, gaining intensity as 15 November approached – the day that Gen Musharraf's presidential term was to end. But all this was happening as the political struggle in Pakistan was gaining unprecedented momentum, fed by the media and the lawyers' movement.
If ever the idiom 'information is power' was demonstrated, it was here in Pakistan. When Geo TV, the country's first live, 24-hour news channel, was launched in 2002, its correspondents quickly began telling people what was really going on – in Urdu, the widely understood people's tongue. Many other independent television channels have cropped up since then, providing not just information but also analysis. Television was already a platform for conservative viewpoints that have found play since the Afghan war and Pakistan's cooption into the jihadist war against communism. But for the first time, this public platform became available to progressive viewpoints, which had long been barred from reaching the public. This is the worldview that demands a democratic system of governance, peace with India, and accountability not just from politicians but from the military.