With each passing day, the death toll in Karachi rises steadily. It is hard to explain who is behind the killings or why the victims were the ones chosen. It appears that ethnic, sectarian, criminal and political motives may all be involved. The killings take place sporadically with people falling prey in various pockets across the city. In most instances, gunmen driving past on motorcycles are responsible while occasionally, other methods are used. Over the past week, there have been more deaths resulting from the unrest, raising the total even higher.
According to a statement by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, at least 800 people have been killed so far this year. Other accounts suggest the number has already crossed the 1,000 mark. These are alarming numbers, fit to paralyse the citizenry. So far, despite the many statements we have heard form Interior Minister Rehman Malik and others in the government, there have been few arrests and little success has been achieved in tracking down those behind the murders. This does not carry much hope for the future.
The law-enforcement authorities and district administration need to improve their methods as this is the easier part of the task. What is more demanding is the need to work out a policy for Karachi, which incorporates all the diverse problems it faces. Only if we understand these fully and acknowledge that they exist can there be any hope of bringing the killings to an end. Till then, they will continue on a virtually daily basis as is happening now.
A solution can only be found with the participation of all the political parties that wield influence in Karachi. Without their full cooperation and support, it will be difficult to initiate a process that will lead to some consensual effort to change this fast-becoming reality of daily violence and death in a major city of the country.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 21st, 2012.
COMMENTS (5)
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@Usman: Sir with due respect how could IK solve all the problems of Sind and Karachi when he was not even able to enter that part of the country? What has changed now? The same parties have been in power in Karachi for more than two decades and the govts come and go but their power does not diminish. How would IK deal with that, just like the CJ who came to Karachi to address the killings but after all the fanfare it went in hibernation.
Please read this to understand the political violence in karachi :
Anatomy of Political Violence in Karachi
As bid for mastery over Karachi continues, violence seems to be only mean to achieve the end. The violence has once again sparked up engulfing almost all parts of the city, except the elite porches areas. As always, it erupted as political controversies surpassed political bargaining. But the worst in the conflict in Karachi is official attitude to its nature. The violence in Karachi is never described as political violence but criminal violence and targeted killings
Continue reading by clicking the link
http://zabdulla.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/anatomy-of-political-violence-in-karachi/
strong textA solution can only be found with the participation of all the political parties that wield influence in Karachi.
The majority of bodies that have fallen in Karachi right from the beginning have been caused by a party that everyone in this Universe knows who and which is hardly political. The people who are part of the problem cannot be banked upon for putting up solutions. The solution of one of them will be problem for the rest of other parties. In a civilized world, the solution to lawlessness is not asked from political parties but it is the duty of the administration to bring order in the society. In Pakistan, since it is only police which calls the shots for law and order, it is its duty to either do the business it has arrogated to itself or tell us they are being wrongly paid for the job.
If PPP or N-League distance themselves from 'the party' you call political, there are times when someone else with the real power in the country co-opts them and brings them Jam Sadiq, Arbab Ghulam Rahim or the likes of them and let them rule the roost. A political party does not become violent if they are out of the power. A political party believes in the level playing field for all. A political party does not kill. If the killing is how politics is done in Karachi then I tell you there will also be others who know how to use the trigger. And Taliban, Balochs of Lyari, and other religious outfits have lot of ammunition at their disposal. Violence is no more the monopoly of state or one 'party' in Karachi. With regards to all.
Well, when an honest person like Imran Khan comes out and tell you Karachites the truth, you call him politically immature. When your beloved MQM, PPP and PML-N use armed wings to protect their turf and get extortion money from you, you ask for protection.
You neither want one or the other, which one do you want? The solution is in front of your eyes, vote for a different political party next time. Learn the truth, that all politicial parties currently in power have armed wings, from JI to MQM. and everything in between.
PTI is the only clean party. So use your vote to bring change.
This is the natural result of the ambience of intolerance and rejection of dissent that has taken root in Pakistan in all the years since 1977. What can you expect from the ordinary people if even a high falutin place like The Express Tribune does not even receive comments, much less publish them, from those who disagree with it? This is my third comment this morning. I have little hope that it will have a better fate than the first two. V. C. Bhutani, Delhi, India, 21 Sep 2012, 0624 IST