The Karachi operation

Action should be taken against all criminal and militant elements because cutting out half of the tumour is no cure

The prime minister was in Karachi to review the progress of the ongoing operation in the city designed to eradicate criminal elements and terrorists. He lauded the efforts of the law enforcement agencies and gave the go-ahead for the second phase of the operation — all of which appears well and good except that it might not be the whole story. Unusually, the meeting was held at the PAF Faisal Base and not in the Chief Minister’s House or the Governor’s House. Governor Ishratul Ebad left before the meeting started and perhaps, most tellingly, the chief of Karachi police had to wait outside while it was conducted. The meeting was briefed by the Rangers Director General, Maj Gen Bilal Akbar, who spoke of the raid on the MQM headquarters at Nine Zero, the alleged revelations made by some of those detained in the raid and the nature of the weapons recovered. Taken together, all these elements were grist to the rumour mill which duly ground into action.

There appears to be a murky political churn if not actually in process then at the advanced planning stage. The accusations made by Saulat Mirza, an MQM activist currently awaiting execution, may or may not be true, but they have weakened the position of Governor Ebad. The Karachi police force is a bit-player, sidelined because of its corruption and serial failure to control extremism and politically linked crime in the city.

The military and the political leadership seems to be on the same page as far as clearing criminal elements from Karachi is concerned. But all of this begs the question: what next? Once the operation is deemed to be over, there are only the police to fill the law and order vacuum, and a return to the status quo is at least likely. Thus far, operations against political parties appear to only have touched the MQM despite a recent report that tagged all the mainstream parties as having armed elements. We would wish to see robust action against all criminal and militant elements because cutting out half of the tumour is no cure.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2015.

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