

Enter the Rangers and a very different ball game is in progress, with the results beginning to swing not just in the direction of the forces of law and order, but in the direction of the wellbeing of the ordinary citizens of Karachi. September 2013 may well be seen as the point at which the tide of violence began to turn for Karachi, but so far it is a job only half-done and a lot more remains to be accomplished.
The senior commander of the Rangers in Sindh said on April 27 that violence had gone down in the city by 50 per cent since the date in 2013 when an operation was launched against criminal elements in the city. There have been protests from political parties that the operation amounts to a ‘soft coup’ and is politically motivated, but if there are elements of a political party that run parts of the city under a cloak of fear and criminality, then their political affiliation matters not one jot or tittle.
These elements need to be tackled, and tackled hard. It must be kept in mind that this is not a job best done with one hand tied behind your back. A meeting chaired by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan reiterated the government’s resolve to continue the operation in the city “to its logical conclusion”. The minister also said that he regarded all expenditures on security as “an investment” — and if that investment pays a dividend then so much the better. As noted above, a 50 per cent reduction in violence in the city is a job half done. We look forward to the completion of the other half of the job. On this will hinge the future prosperity of the country’s financial hub.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2015.
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