Karachi - A City At War With Itself - 1995
To many he’s the Mother Theresa of Pakistan. Every day Sattar Edhi collects the dead from the streets of Karachi for burial.
Around him, one of the world’s biggest cities is descending into chaos. Edhi’s massive graveyard outside Karachi looks like a war cemetery. In a back street police pick up yet another victim although there is little hope of catching his murderers. Karachi’s economy is fuelled by drug dealing, gun running and bribery. It’s a black joke that when the police hear gunfire, they run in the opposite direction. A millionaire businessman has developed Karachi’s only computerised investigation system to try to control crime. But avoiding the battlegrounds is becoming more difficult. We follow one injured woman to hospital where there’s little hope of saving her life. Small businesses and shops are too afraid to open and it’s difficult to sell anything legal. For many of Karachi’s orphans Sattar Edhi is their only hope. Interview with Benazir Bhutto.
Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures
Transcript:
He’s Mother Theresa of Pakistan... To many he’s almost a saint... Everyday Sattar Edhi collects the dead and abandoned from the streets of Karachi.
Around him, one of the world’s biggest cities is descending into chaos.
Praying Edhi: ‘allahu akbah'
A one-man social security system, Sattar Edhi and his volunteers run clinics and emergency centres, take in unwanted babies and bury unwanted dead.
Edhi’s massive graveyard outside Karachi looks like a war cemetery.
Most buried here don’t have names, only numbers.
It was they say all working reasonably well till a few months ago, when the government brought in the paramilitary.
Since then there’s been more violence and shooting.
It’s a sign of the crisis that Pakistan’s government has begun talking to the MQM opposition.
Q: What do people think about talks, do they take them seriously?
A: No not at all.
So far the talks have gone nowhere.
Bhutto: How much can a government do? That’s what I’d like to ask because we have fed people this false notion that the government can take care of everything from the cradle to the grave.
Reporter: Of course a government can’t do everything, I appreciate that point but can you understand how people would feel angry with the government and alienated from it when they have to live in the miserable sorts of conditions that there are in many parts of Karachi?
Bhutto: yes peole were angry but who was responsible, it was the MQM. They were in government in ‘87, they were in government in ‘88, they were in government in 1990... what did they do for the people of Karachi? They ate up the money of Karachi, they used it to pay their cadres, they used it on entertainment, they used it in guns, they used it to transfer money to foreign countries. And can the press write about it -no Karachi’s press can’t write because if Karachi’s press write about it - they get killed.
Reporter: I’m sorry
Bhutto: Can we go onto other questions ?
Reporter: May I just ask one more question ?
Bhutto: No because I’ve answered enough questions on this.
Around him, one of the world’s biggest cities is descending into chaos.
Praying Edhi: ‘allahu akbah'
A one-man social security system, Sattar Edhi and his volunteers run clinics and emergency centres, take in unwanted babies and bury unwanted dead.
Edhi’s massive graveyard outside Karachi looks like a war cemetery.
Most buried here don’t have names, only numbers.
It was they say all working reasonably well till a few months ago, when the government brought in the paramilitary.
Since then there’s been more violence and shooting.
It’s a sign of the crisis that Pakistan’s government has begun talking to the MQM opposition.
Q: What do people think about talks, do they take them seriously?
A: No not at all.
So far the talks have gone nowhere.
Bhutto: How much can a government do? That’s what I’d like to ask because we have fed people this false notion that the government can take care of everything from the cradle to the grave.
Reporter: Of course a government can’t do everything, I appreciate that point but can you understand how people would feel angry with the government and alienated from it when they have to live in the miserable sorts of conditions that there are in many parts of Karachi?
Bhutto: yes peole were angry but who was responsible, it was the MQM. They were in government in ‘87, they were in government in ‘88, they were in government in 1990... what did they do for the people of Karachi? They ate up the money of Karachi, they used it to pay their cadres, they used it on entertainment, they used it in guns, they used it to transfer money to foreign countries. And can the press write about it -no Karachi’s press can’t write because if Karachi’s press write about it - they get killed.
Reporter: I’m sorry
Bhutto: Can we go onto other questions ?
Reporter: May I just ask one more question ?
Bhutto: No because I’ve answered enough questions on this.
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Email: info@journeyman.tv
Journeyman Pictures Ltd. 4-6 High Street, Thames Ditton, Surrey, KT7 0RY, United Kingdom
Email: info@journeyman.tv
Karachi - A City At War With Itself - 1995
Reviewed by Uncle Sam
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Reviewed by Uncle Sam
on
03:49
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