The reality is that citizens are being mercilessly slaughtered like chickens and the state has failed to protect them.
LAHORE: It does not make a difference if those carrying out the killings in Karachi are political activists, members of gangs or extremists funded and armed by foreign enemies. The ground reality is that citizens are being mercilessly slaughtered like chickens and the state has failed to protect them and punish the criminals. For this to happen in the biggest city of Pakistan is nothing short of criminal negligence on the part of the sitting provincial government. The latter, in fact, has lost all moral authority to rule and should resign.
The unprecedented rise in crimes and murders in Karachi over the past few years is in large part due to the fact that all such incidents are treated on political grounds and not for the crimes that they are. And they keep happening because the government/state, for reasons best known to itself, is unwilling to act against those involved in the violence. And the party that suffers the most as a result of this inaction and indecision is ordinary citizens.
This is clear failure of the government in protecting the lives and properties of its citizens, which is its primary constitutional obligation. If one were to argue that these murderers are getting away because of an unwillingness of witnesses to come forward, that, too, is a failure of the state to discharge its constitutional obligation.
Malik Tariq Ali
Published in The Express Tribune, July 10th, 2011.
