NAMAZ is the time to take a break from worldly matters to stand before Allah and seek His mercy and guidance. But despite one’s best efforts, thoughts wander to mundane matters — as they do to the unintended consequences of the events taking place in our country.

In the 1980s, the MQM was created to take care of the monopoly of a party in Karachi. For the next 30 years, we saw the MQM’s new culture of violence in Karachi impeding the city’s economic, physical and social growth. From the ‘city of lights’, Karachi became the world’s second most unsafe city after Caracas.

In the 1970s, we had to fight fears of the Soviets invading our country after Afghanistan. Simplistically, we took to the idea of training and funding civilians, religiously inclined or financially driven, as mujahideen, and having them cross the western border. It was a win-win. Rulers could prolong their rule; the country and rulers could get dollars. Everyone was happy. The unintended impact was the introduction of drugs and the Kalashnikov culture, which have flourished since.

We also saw that after the USSR’s withdrawal, while we expected the mujahideen to return to their mundane village life, they, having become used to power and pelf,........

© Dawn