Karachi: Businessmen give guarded response to govt’s plan

Say country will suffer if parties try to influence ‘an indiscriminate operation’.

KARACHI:

Businessmen have given a cautious welcome to a federal government move to grant Pakistan Rangers more powers to stem violence and crime in Karachi.

However, they have also warned that the country will suffer if political parties try to influence “an indiscriminate operation” against criminal elements.

Welcoming the resolve of the federal government, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) – the apex body of the business community of Pakistan – said something had to be done if political parties wanted to stabilise Karachi.

“We appreciate the federal government’s determination to control security in the city but we also want to tell politicians that Karachi has already suffered a lot in the last few years,” FPCCI President Zubair Malik told The Express Tribune.

Despite all the fears of political interference in Rangers’ operations, Malik said the Rangers were capable of doing effective operations in the city, provided the federal government continued to monitor the situation.



“Right now, we do not know how much power Rangers will have. But they can do anything if they want to pursue criminal elements judiciously,” he said, adding that the government had to decide how it will carry out surgical operations.

“We were expecting much from the federal government. Whatever assurances they have given to the business community of Karachi is simply not enough for us,” Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) chief Mohammad Haroon Agar reacted to the press conference of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.

With 18,000 members, KCCI is the country’s biggest chamber of commerce and the dominant voice of the business community in Karachi.

“We have tested Rangers before, so we do not have much hope in them. We were expecting the government to deploy the army in the troubled areas of the city to do surgical operations against hardcore criminals,” he said.

Nevertheless, Agar appreciated the government’s decision to make a committee of civil society to monitor Rangers’ operations in the city.

“The government can get results only if it resists pressures from political parties and carries out operations against all mafias in Karachi,” Agar added.

The worry of small traders

“We have little confidence on government,” said Old City Traders Alliance chairman Jameel Paracha, representing the businessmen of one of the most extortion-affected areas of the city.

“We will believe the government only when it shows some genuine results,” he added.

Small traders and shopkeepers have become increasingly vocal in recent years. They said their leaders, especially the KCCI’s leadership, has badly failed in pushing the Sindh government to take action against known criminal elements in the city.

Despite all this mess, they believe the government can still control the situation if it sincerely takes action against all criminal elements in the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.