Karachi is individually and collectively being bled to death.
KARACHI: Time and again we hear the interior minister saying that action will be taken against criminals, terrorists and various mafias in Karachi. However, these are only claims and the reality is quite different. The other day there was a newspaper report which said that suspects in over 300 ‘high-profile’ criminal or terrorist cases were freed after witnesses withdrew. The report said that the reason for this was “fear, distrust of the police, social pressure and compromises between the parties through political and influential people.”
Karachi is individually and collectively being bled to death. The patronage comes down from the higher echelons, many with massive assets abroad and little or no remaining concern for the well-being of the country that they loot. In this amorphous mess, one short-term balancing solution is of so-called ‘target killings’.
The solution to righting Karachi’s wrongs is not impossible. Years ago, former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani cleansed the city within a single four-year term. He had a working law and order system to draw upon and he demonstrated the political will needed to bring about change for the better. We have a surplus of both of these but they are used only for personal gain.
My suggestion is that we lock up the “political and influential people” with the SHOs of the more notorious and lucrative police stations in one room. By applying the same gentle methods of official persuasion that we rigorously follow under the ambit of human rights, in a short time we will have all the problem individuals identified, caught, tried, convicted and suitably punished.
But the only question is, who will bell the cat?
Dr Mervyn Hosein
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2010.
