Daily Times Editorial Aug 30, 2013

‘Targeted’ operation in Karachi Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali gave us a glimpse of the government’s thinking about a ‘targeted’ operation in Karachi during a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday. The minister underlined the need for carrying out this operation under the supervision of the Sindh government with the chief minister as the ‘captain’ of the team (a reassertion of the fact that law and order is a provincial subject and the federal government could not intervene, except to facilitate the provincial government). Chaudhry Nisar mercifully ruled out any prospect of a handover of Karachi to the army as demanded by the MQM, although he conceded that he shared with the MQM the opinion that something had to be done about the state of affairs in the city. He went on to make the optimistic claim that criminals and their hideouts in the city have already been identified and all that was needed was a consensus on the operation, political will, clarity of thought and transparency. Chaudhry Nisar warned that the large number of target killers who had political affiliations would be eliminated without taking any such factor into consideration. He went on to announce that the next meeting of the federal cabinet would be held in Karachi and all stakeholders, including the Sindh chief minister and MQM leader Farooq Sattar would be invited for consultations. He pointed to the proposal to set up a committee comprising political representatives, members of the media and businessmen from Karachi to oversee the operation. Meanwhile a larger bench of the Supreme Court hearing the case pertaining to implementation of its 2011 order in a suo motu notice over the security situation of Karachi was told on Wednesday by the Sindh Rangers DG Rizwan Akhtar that the militant wings of political parties were active in the city and had gone on a killing spree of late. The court held the law enforcement agencies responsible for the deterioration of the city’s law and order. However, the DG expressed his helplessness as the Rangers had limited powers and while they could arrest criminals, they were not in a position to investigate crimes properly. He also impliedly criticised the fact that those arrested were soon granted bail and set free by the courts. Whether in the remarks of Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali or the Supreme Court hearing, what comes through is the complex and complicated ground realities in the metropolis. The descent of Karachi into chaos owes its origins to the emergence of the MQM in the city in the mid-1980s. Since then, the city has hardly seen a day without violence of one sort or another. The only difference between then and now is that whereas the MQM soon acquired a ‘monopoly’ of political support and power in the city (and the extortion business), today it stands challenged on the political front by other forces, some of older presence in the city, some of more recent origin. First and foremost this has led to turf wars amongst the parties and their armed wings. In addition, the extortion monopoly of the MQM has been broken over the years by criminal gangs, some with political affiliations, which has exacerbated the turf wars on the soil of Karachi. The malign presence of the Taliban in the city has added a further dreadful factor into Karachi’s bubbling cauldron. As we have said repeatedly in this space, the way forward is clearly to persuade the political parties to close down and disarm their armed wings, allow the police and Rangers a free hand to implement the law without fear, favour, or having to glance over their shoulders at the influential and powerful patrons of the criminals, and ensure the prosecution and judicial process puts law breakers away for as long as they deserve. Needless to say, unless Karachi is ‘cleaned’ up, the economy cannot get out of the doldrums it is in, nor can the hapless citizens of the largest city of Pakistan breathe freely and without fear. The federal and provincial government need to come together on this urgent national task.