The other shoe drops

THe next phase of Karachi operation needs to target infrastructures that support criminal and terrorist activity

There is no doubt that Karachi is a safer, more peaceful place. The streets are being reclaimed by ordinary people going about their ordinary lives with an added sense of security. There is anecdotal reporting that the business life of the city is appreciating the almost complete disappearance of kidnapping for ransom. Market traders equally speak of not being harassed for bhatta quite so often and the no-go areas have been cleared of many of the criminal infestations that had made them their fiefdoms. However critical one might be of the methods of those that are enforcing a new sense of order — primarily the Rangers — that they are getting results is unarguable.

It is now two years since the Karachi operation commenced and the Rangers have announced that they are going to move to the next phase, which sounds uncannily like more of the same that was the foundation of the first phase. Rangers have called on the citizenry to send them an SMS or email if they wish to share information about criminal activity, political or otherwise — a novel approach.

The operation has its detractors, not least the activists of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), who are claiming that the party is being unfairly targeted. If, as is apparent from statistics, there has been a 70 per cent drop in criminal and terrorist activity as a result of the operation and if, as is being alleged, the MQM are the only political party being targeted, then a reasonable extrapolation is that 70 per cent is perhaps a fair representation of MQM involvement in assorted anti-social activities. This, however, in no way detracts from the reality of political violence and criminality that happens under the wings of other political parties. There are no innocents. To be wholly credible, therefore, the operation needs to reflect this. In broad terms, the announcement of the next phase of the Karachi operation is a welcome one, but at the same time concerns that there need to be a concentration on taking down the infrastructures that support criminal and terrorist activity must also be addressed. Merely doing a little selective weeding does not a fine garden make.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 4^th, 2015.

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