Pakistan: Karachi, the valley of death. Who is responsible.?

Karachi violence: who is responsible?
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
By Muhammad Umer
Karachi
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Death has descended on Karachi once again and already devoured many lives. Since the advent of the New Year, hardly a day goes by without several people being killed. At least 35 people have fallen prey to the latest spate of target killings during the last six days.

The victims included Geo News reporter Wali Khan Babar, who was gunned down on January 13 while he had been going home after performing his professional responsibilities for the day; a pilot of the chief minister; and a Naib Nazim belonging to the MQM.

The hatred that has permeated through different ethnic groups is so intense that killers do not spare even innocent citizens, including children. Among those who lost their lives to this madness over the past week were rickshaw drivers, a Paan shop owner, and a six-year-old girl. The girl along with five other passengers on a bus was shot dead in Orangi Town.

The fresh wave of target killings is a sad reflection on the state abdicating its responsibility for protecting the life and property of the people. It also all exposes the true nature of the coalition government whose members refuse to do anything concrete to control the situation precisely because they resort to violence as a tool to protect their interests and to keep each other out of the battle for taking over the city.

With the rule of law brazenly banished from the country in general and Karachi in particular, the coalition partners are trying to shift the blame onto each other. It seems ridiculous when their representatives appear in TV talk shows and call upon the government to take action against criminals who have taken the city hostage. The question arises: who are they asking to take action when their own parties are the government?

The Awami National Party has called for purging the city of all kinds of weapons. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has filed a draft bill — Deweaponisation of Pakistan Bill 2011 — with the National Assembly Secretariat, demanding de-weaponisation across the country. Can’t both parties simply ask the Pakistan People Party, which is the main ruling party, to accept their demands and start a campaign immediately to de-weaponise society? Is there any need to make such demands or to go for a new piece of legislation when there already exist laws dealing with weapons?

And just how low the ordinary citizens of the commercial hub of the country are on the priority list of the government can be gauged from the fact that the federal and Sindh governments are not on the same page on what security steps they should take to deal with the situation. Rehman Malik, the security czar of the country, announced the other day a “semi curfew” while the Home Department denied any such security step was being taken. This created anxiety among the dwellers of the city. Then, there was confusion about whether a fresh ban on pillion riding was for the night or for 24 hours a day as the announcements made by the interior minister and the Home Department a few days back differed from each other. This resulted in hundreds of unsuspecting motorcyclists and their pillion passengers being detained and fined. Now rangers are carrying out a search operation in several areas of Orangi Town. On Tuesday, TV channels showed scenes of people being body-searched and humiliated during the operation. The action by the paramilitaries not only created fear among the hapless residents of those areas but also immensely inconvenienced them. We have seen such so-called operations in the past too, but nothing came out of them, apart from some short-term gains. Even the two military operations in 90s failed to ensure lasting peace in the city. Why? Because the problem is political in nature and requires a political solution. Surgical operations can remove the symptoms — that too at too big a price to pay — but the disease will be cured only through an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment.

In the final analysis, the responsibility to restore peace lies with the political parties enjoying power. Unless they decide to stop using violence as a means to make territorial gains in Karachi, and accept each other as a political reality, the so-called security steps being taken by the authorities will turn out to be what they really are — a complete farce.

(thenews.com.,pk)

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