The Supreme Court on Karachi

So complex is the situation in Karachi that no one actor, not even the powerful Supreme Court, could hope to solve it. What the Supreme Court did do, in its verdict on the suo motu case on Karachi, is confirm what many had suspected. The violence in Karachi, it concluded, was partly spurred by criminal groups that had political backing. No one political group was singled out by the court, with the PPP, the MQM, the ANP, the Jamaat-i-Islami and the Sunni Tehreek all accused of making the city a criminal haven thanks to their involvement in extortion. Partisans of these parties have all been quick to blame their opponents for their criminality; thanks to the Supreme Court we now have evidence that all are culpable.

At least half of the killers, responsible for over a thousand deaths in Karachi this summers, had political backing, the Supreme Court said. But merely stating what was already known will not be enough. The police lack the will and ability to take on killers with political connections and apart from that evidence to convict them in a court of law is often found wanting. Another option would have been to ban the political parties but the court has rightly ruled that out as unpragmatic and unenforceable. The suggestion by the Supreme Court that appointments to the police be made on merit rather than political considerations is a sound one but again can only be enforced if the political parties in the cities are willing to change the way they operate. More useful is the suggestion that the monopoly of political parties in certain areas be broken by altering the boundaries of administrative units. The Supreme Court, thankfully, also poured cold water on the idea that a military operation could bring peace to Karachi, by pointing out that previous such operations were mostly failures.

Ultimately, though, even a verdict from the Supreme Court will not be enough to stem the bloodletting in Karachi. Until the political parties in the city decide that they will no longer patronise criminals in their ranks, peace will remain an illusion. The solution to Karachi’s woes lies in political compromise, not court hearings, however, well-intentioned they may be.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2011.