With the news of gangster Uzair Jan Baloch’s arrest in Dubai by Interpol, shops in some areas of Lyari started closing down on Monday much before the usual announcement by Uzair’s men through loudspeakers.Uzair, 37, has been considered the political face of the Pakistan Peoples Party in Lyari — a label the PPP is struggling to distance itself from. He tried his luck in politics as an independent candidate for the seat of Lyari Nazim in the 2001 elections that he lost to Habib Hassan, a staunch Pakistan Peoples Party activist.
Son of a transporter named Faiz Mohammad alias Faizu Mama, Uzair’s forays into crime came soon after his father was killed by Mohammad Arshad alias Arshad Pappu’s gang in 2003, as he set out to avenge his father’s murder. Arshad Pappu was a rival of Uzair’s first cousin, Abdul Rehman alias Rehman Dakait, who was involved in a long and bitter gang warfare over drugs and land in Lyari with the Arshad Pappu gang.