Only the parties can solve Karachi’s law and order problems: Asma

‘The government is only forming committees and not coming up with any solutions’.

KARACHI: The key to a solution of the Karachi imbroglio is not with army or police but with political parties, said the Supreme Court of Pakistan Bar Association’s (SCBAP) president, Asma Jahangir.

She was addressing a general body meeting of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA) on Monday when at least ten other people were killed.

She expressed concern about the law and order situation in Karachi and explained  that law enforcing agencies, including the Rangers and Sindh police, have completely failed. Jahangir declared that the Rangers have failed to justify their presence in Karachi and their role was now limited to encroaching on school, college and park plots.

She said that earlier on political groups were collecting extortion but in recent times the Peoples Amn Committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party had transformed in to a ‘Bhatta Committee’ to collect extortion money by terrorising the people of Karachi.

“The government is just forming committees and is not coming up with any solutions,” said Jehangir. “It seems as if the law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi is very similar.”

She remarked that the judiciary was not living up to her expectations, and demanded that judges be appointed on merit in the superior as well as the subordinate judiciary.

The SHCBA’s president, Anwar Mansoor Khan, said that the SCBAP did not help the bar associations of Sindh when they were facing problems. In response to this, Jehangir promised her cooperation in the future.

This was her first address to the SHCBA since she was elected SCBAP president in December 2010.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 23^rd,  2011.