Political parties need to ensure that the black sheep in their ranks do not hold the people of the city hostage.
KARACHI: Surely, the political parties — the MQM, the PPP and the ANP — who all have an abiding stake and interest in Karachi need to stand up and be counted. They need to ensure that the black sheep in their ranks do not hold the people of the city hostage any longer. They can do this by keeping their armed cadres and so-called activists in check and, in fact, should purge their ranks of all such elements. Furthermore, they should allow the police and other law-enforcement agencies a free hand in catching all those involved in target killings, regardless of their political, ethnic or group affiliation.
The police should also be strengthened in terms of forensics and investigation of such cases so that the courts can then be presented with reasonably solid cases to convict these killers. Of course, to many this may seem too idealistic, but what is the alternative? Should the country’s largest city and its commercial and financial centre be allowed to descend into anarchy on a regular basis? Should the government and the state sit by idly and do nothing?
Ali Usman
Published in The Express Tribune, July 9th, 2011.
