Daily Times Editorial Sept 21, 2013

Cry Karachi Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali told the National Assembly (NA) on Thursday that 10 percent of the job regarding the targeted operation in Karachi had been completed, but there was still a great deal to be done. The next phases, the minister asserted, would be more intense. As a result of the operation, Chaudhry Nisar revealed, the terrorists were running out of the city. Certainly if the reports of gangsters and wanted people’s arrest from Hub, Balochistan and Murree, Punjab are to be believed, it seems the gangsters and terrorists regard the better part of valour to be to ‘disappear’ in the face of perhaps an operation with the greatest political will since the 1992 operation in Karachi (also carried out by a PML-N government). The minister also clarified that he had not stopped intelligence reports from being submitted in the Supreme Court (SC) because they included the name of the Mohajir Republican Army (MRA) but because the report was not worth submitting. Intelligence on the MRA, which has claimed various terrorist acts, does not point in the direction of the MQM. He said further that the report on the MRA was not prepared by this government but the previous one, which included the MQM. Dilating on the ongoing operation, Chaudhry Nisar told the House that the Rangers had so far conducted 400 targeted operations, while the police had carried out 1,000 actions in Karachi so far. From this account, it can be gathered just how difficult and protracted the task of cleansing Karachi of terrorists and other law breakers is going to be. This is an affliction that has accumulated over decades, transmogrifying along the way into a multi-layered problem involving terrorism, political turf wars and criminal activities. The protagonists are not only the known terrorist organisations, they also include, apart from criminal gangs, the armed wings of political parties as well as sectarian groups interested in denominational bloodletting, as the grenade attack on an Imambargah on Wednesday highlights. While the interior minister was informing the NA about the Karachi operation, the issue was resonating in the hallowed chambers of the Supreme Court (SC) too. The SC, seized of the law and order situation in Karachi as the result of a suo motu notice two years ago, appears as frustrated as any other institution at the lack of implementation of its orders vis-à-vis Karachi, as well as the speculation regarding arms flows into Karachi from the sea as well as over land from the north. The SC thinks the arms flowing in from the sea come from India and Israel, while those from the north come from NATO, the US and Russia. While this may be true in terms of the origin and possible routes for smuggling weapons of all kinds into Karachi, it does not necessarily mean that these countries are interested in creating problems for Pakistan, as the conspiracy theory narrative tends to suggest. The fact is that just as in other parts of the world where insurgencies and terrorism have flourished, the troubled country or region acts as a magnet for all types of arms smuggling. The weapons mentioned in the SC list are available in the black market and therefore to jump to the conclusion that the make, manufacture and origin of the weapons reveals a sinister policy of destabilising Pakistan on the part of those countries may be a red herring. Regardless, the fact of easy weapons availability in Karachi is and should be the main point to focus on if the law and order situation in the troubled city is to be improved. The SC thinks the flow can and should be stopped, even if a curfew has to be imposed. While a tempting idea, there is no guarantee that a curfew, which would greatly inconvenience the citizens of Karachi and further erode its economic life, would necessarily help stem the flow of arms. The more difficult but perhaps more efficacious path is to conduct good investigation and intelligence to nab the weapons smugglers. One issue at least has been resolved by the DG Rangers withdrawing his sensational statement before the SC that some 1,900 NATO containers full of arms had ‘disappeared’ in Karachi. The finger of suspicion was pointed at Babar Ghauri, MQM’s Minister for Ports and Shipping during the previous government, but since the DG Rangers’ retreat, this seems to have turned out to be a damp squib. It would perhaps be unfair and premature to pronounce on the Karachi operation at this point. No miracles should be expected overnight. Inherently, the operation will be protracted and difficult. All it needs is the requisite political will to grasp this nettle firmly, finally.