By Amir Zia
March 17, 2014
The News
The government needs a holistic approach for peace in Karachi. And the first step starts with political will. Are the leading parties, including the PPP and the MQM, ready to stop supporting criminals? Apart from offering lip-service to this objective, our politicians have not moved an inch in this regard.
Karachi’s bloodletting has an eerie pattern. Operation or no operation, there is always a modest drop in the day-to-day killings and sometimes even a brief period of lull. But then the haze of relative calm is blown away by one big act of butchery or a series of similar such acts and this grim fact manifests itself again in loud and clear terms that Karachi remains among the most dangerous, crime-ridden and lawless megacities of the world.
Therefore, the atrocious gun and grenade attack in the volatile neighbourhood of Lyari on March 12 that killed 16 people, mostly women and children, should not come as a surprise. The city has all the ingredients that make it a keg of gun-powder – ready to explode anytime.
There are politically-backed gangsters organised under various banners such as the notorious People’s Amn (Peace) Committee of Lyari. Due to the infighting among its various ring-leaders over the spoils of their criminal empire, this so-called peace committee now stands divided into two main groups – each baying for the blood of its rival faction members.
The latest deadly attack, too, was the result of their continuing strife as various key political players continue to back this or that band of criminals. However, this time there has been a deviation from the set pattern of violence even by Lyari standards. It is for the first time that innocent residents were targeted in such a brazen manner – all because they happened to be in the area dominated by the rival faction of attackers.
Director General Sindh Rangers Maj General Rizwan Akhter hit the bull’s eye when he told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his recent visit to Karachi that some of the key members of the Pakistan People’s Party, which is running the show in Sindh since 2008, continue to back the Lyari gangsters. No wonder that one of the most wanted criminal kingpins of the committee – Uzair Baloch – is cooling his heels abroad. How he managed to sneak out of the country underlines his connections with the rich and the powerful.
Then we have the militant wings of all major political and religious parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, its dissident faction the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Awami National Party, and various Sindhi and Baloch nationalists, who operate with impunity in Karachi – each according to its size. Many of these parties fight with one another to maintain or expand their turfs and extort money from small and big shopkeepers, businesspeople, industrialists, professionals and even ordinary low-income group citizens – often in the name of donations. Some of them also patronise land encroachers and other crime mafias.
The presence of heavily armed sectarian groups complicates the situation a little more. They carryout tit-for-tat killings and fan extremism and hate. These groups thrive and breed on the vast network of seminaries, raising funds from local sources both legally and illegally and also from their foreign patrons and supporters in different ‘brotherly’ Muslim countries.
The list of promoters, abettors and executioners of crime and terrorism does not end here. A deadly challenge also comes from the Al-Qaeda inspired militants operating under the banner of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other shadowy terrorist cells and groups.
This witches’ brew also includes the small and big dons of the crime world, drug-peddlers, weapon smugglers, gambling den operators, local thugs and petty street criminals who operate independently or associate themselves with one or the other party. Indeed fighting violence, terrorism and crime in such a vast city, with its myriad socioeconomic and civic problems and so many destabilising factors, can be a nightmare for any police force of the world.
The effectiveness of the police, Sindh Rangers and the other law-enforcement agencies is compromised because of the political interference, expediency, opportunism and apathy of the elected representatives, who are more part of the problem than the solution. Playing by the book is not their article of faith. They are driven by short-term political goals and narrow self-interests.
Ask Karachi Police Chief Shahid Hayat to name the gravest of all these destabilising factors and he will say that it is politically-motivated violence that overlaps organised crime – from land encroachments to the extortion racket. To put it simply: it is the criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crime that remains the mother of all that is evil in Karachi.
For Hayat, the Al-Qaeda inspired militants too pose a big security challenge and have the capacity to stage massive deadly terrorist attacks, but they are devoid of support from the local population. Therefore, they are manageable. The real challenge is political violence, he says.
And his line of argument seems to make sense. Police will be able to take on criminals and assassins more effectively if political parties remove the umbrellas that protect them.
The turmoil and lawlessness in Lyari – a gift of the PPP rule in Sindh – is a case in point as it emerges as the biggest disruptive factor in today’s Karachi. Gangsters not only hold the entire population of Lyari hostage, but also operate the extortion racket and other heinous crimes, especially in the city’s old parts where key wholesale and retail markets and businesses are located.
The short-sighted policy of some of the PPP Sindh stalwarts of patronising criminals damaged the party in its main stronghold in Karachi. The locality – once the hub of democratic movements – is now controlled by gangsters, who have sidelined the local political activists.
In this situation, should one take heart from the prime minister’s announcement that the operation against criminals and terrorists would continue till the restoration of peace in Karachi? In a way yes, but shouldn’t fighting crime and terrorism be a round-the-clock job?
Operations have limited objectives and a set timeframe. Karachi’s complicated case cannot be handled through a mere operation, though it did manage to bring the rate of killings down to 1,005 in its first 184 days (up to March 7) compared with the 1,448 killed in the same number of days before the start of the crackdown. However, incidents such as the one that took place in Lyari should serve as a grim reminder that until the root-causes of lawlessness are not addressed, Karachi’s pot will remain on the boil. More than 10,000 arrests and killing of 150 plus criminals and terrorists can only give short-term relief. There will be new gangsters, militants and terrorists to replace them.
The government needs a holistic approach for peace in Karachi. And the first step starts with political will. Are the leading parties, including the PPP and the MQM, ready to stop supporting criminals? Apart from offering lip-service to this objective, our politicians have not moved an inch in this regard.
The other important step is to ensure that the police force is not compromised by political interference. It needs independence and autonomy to do its job. The federal and provincial governments should move to introduce the much-awaited police reforms including appointment of officers on merit and for a fixed term.
Police training on modern lines, introduction of latest investigation techniques, effective prosecution and capacity building, including expansion of the force and provision of modern weapons and communication facilities, should also be the part of the package. Karachi needs double the size of its existing police force of 34,000 personnel. For instance, the four police stations of Lyari until recently had only 300 men available for all three shifts. Recently this strength has been raised by another 400. But is that enough?
Judicial reforms for quick dispensation of justice and lifting of the ill-advised moratorium on death penalty are also some of the must-needed steps.
It will all be mere talk of bringing peace in Karachi if the government fails to take these steps. It is time for rulers to match their words with action. Failing to do so means that Karachiites should be prepared for more horrific incidents such as the one that recently occurred in Lyari. Yes, the bloodletting will continue in the same old fashion.
March 17, 2014
The News
The government needs a holistic approach for peace in Karachi. And the first step starts with political will. Are the leading parties, including the PPP and the MQM, ready to stop supporting criminals? Apart from offering lip-service to this objective, our politicians have not moved an inch in this regard.
Karachi’s bloodletting has an eerie pattern. Operation or no operation, there is always a modest drop in the day-to-day killings and sometimes even a brief period of lull. But then the haze of relative calm is blown away by one big act of butchery or a series of similar such acts and this grim fact manifests itself again in loud and clear terms that Karachi remains among the most dangerous, crime-ridden and lawless megacities of the world.
Therefore, the atrocious gun and grenade attack in the volatile neighbourhood of Lyari on March 12 that killed 16 people, mostly women and children, should not come as a surprise. The city has all the ingredients that make it a keg of gun-powder – ready to explode anytime.
There are politically-backed gangsters organised under various banners such as the notorious People’s Amn (Peace) Committee of Lyari. Due to the infighting among its various ring-leaders over the spoils of their criminal empire, this so-called peace committee now stands divided into two main groups – each baying for the blood of its rival faction members.
The latest deadly attack, too, was the result of their continuing strife as various key political players continue to back this or that band of criminals. However, this time there has been a deviation from the set pattern of violence even by Lyari standards. It is for the first time that innocent residents were targeted in such a brazen manner – all because they happened to be in the area dominated by the rival faction of attackers.
Director General Sindh Rangers Maj General Rizwan Akhter hit the bull’s eye when he told Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his recent visit to Karachi that some of the key members of the Pakistan People’s Party, which is running the show in Sindh since 2008, continue to back the Lyari gangsters. No wonder that one of the most wanted criminal kingpins of the committee – Uzair Baloch – is cooling his heels abroad. How he managed to sneak out of the country underlines his connections with the rich and the powerful.
Then we have the militant wings of all major political and religious parties, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, its dissident faction the Mohajir Qaumi Movement, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Awami National Party, and various Sindhi and Baloch nationalists, who operate with impunity in Karachi – each according to its size. Many of these parties fight with one another to maintain or expand their turfs and extort money from small and big shopkeepers, businesspeople, industrialists, professionals and even ordinary low-income group citizens – often in the name of donations. Some of them also patronise land encroachers and other crime mafias.
The presence of heavily armed sectarian groups complicates the situation a little more. They carryout tit-for-tat killings and fan extremism and hate. These groups thrive and breed on the vast network of seminaries, raising funds from local sources both legally and illegally and also from their foreign patrons and supporters in different ‘brotherly’ Muslim countries.
The list of promoters, abettors and executioners of crime and terrorism does not end here. A deadly challenge also comes from the Al-Qaeda inspired militants operating under the banner of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and other shadowy terrorist cells and groups.
This witches’ brew also includes the small and big dons of the crime world, drug-peddlers, weapon smugglers, gambling den operators, local thugs and petty street criminals who operate independently or associate themselves with one or the other party. Indeed fighting violence, terrorism and crime in such a vast city, with its myriad socioeconomic and civic problems and so many destabilising factors, can be a nightmare for any police force of the world.
The effectiveness of the police, Sindh Rangers and the other law-enforcement agencies is compromised because of the political interference, expediency, opportunism and apathy of the elected representatives, who are more part of the problem than the solution. Playing by the book is not their article of faith. They are driven by short-term political goals and narrow self-interests.
Ask Karachi Police Chief Shahid Hayat to name the gravest of all these destabilising factors and he will say that it is politically-motivated violence that overlaps organised crime – from land encroachments to the extortion racket. To put it simply: it is the criminalisation of politics and politicisation of crime that remains the mother of all that is evil in Karachi.
For Hayat, the Al-Qaeda inspired militants too pose a big security challenge and have the capacity to stage massive deadly terrorist attacks, but they are devoid of support from the local population. Therefore, they are manageable. The real challenge is political violence, he says.
And his line of argument seems to make sense. Police will be able to take on criminals and assassins more effectively if political parties remove the umbrellas that protect them.
The turmoil and lawlessness in Lyari – a gift of the PPP rule in Sindh – is a case in point as it emerges as the biggest disruptive factor in today’s Karachi. Gangsters not only hold the entire population of Lyari hostage, but also operate the extortion racket and other heinous crimes, especially in the city’s old parts where key wholesale and retail markets and businesses are located.
The short-sighted policy of some of the PPP Sindh stalwarts of patronising criminals damaged the party in its main stronghold in Karachi. The locality – once the hub of democratic movements – is now controlled by gangsters, who have sidelined the local political activists.
In this situation, should one take heart from the prime minister’s announcement that the operation against criminals and terrorists would continue till the restoration of peace in Karachi? In a way yes, but shouldn’t fighting crime and terrorism be a round-the-clock job?
Operations have limited objectives and a set timeframe. Karachi’s complicated case cannot be handled through a mere operation, though it did manage to bring the rate of killings down to 1,005 in its first 184 days (up to March 7) compared with the 1,448 killed in the same number of days before the start of the crackdown. However, incidents such as the one that took place in Lyari should serve as a grim reminder that until the root-causes of lawlessness are not addressed, Karachi’s pot will remain on the boil. More than 10,000 arrests and killing of 150 plus criminals and terrorists can only give short-term relief. There will be new gangsters, militants and terrorists to replace them.
The government needs a holistic approach for peace in Karachi. And the first step starts with political will. Are the leading parties, including the PPP and the MQM, ready to stop supporting criminals? Apart from offering lip-service to this objective, our politicians have not moved an inch in this regard.
The other important step is to ensure that the police force is not compromised by political interference. It needs independence and autonomy to do its job. The federal and provincial governments should move to introduce the much-awaited police reforms including appointment of officers on merit and for a fixed term.
Police training on modern lines, introduction of latest investigation techniques, effective prosecution and capacity building, including expansion of the force and provision of modern weapons and communication facilities, should also be the part of the package. Karachi needs double the size of its existing police force of 34,000 personnel. For instance, the four police stations of Lyari until recently had only 300 men available for all three shifts. Recently this strength has been raised by another 400. But is that enough?
Judicial reforms for quick dispensation of justice and lifting of the ill-advised moratorium on death penalty are also some of the must-needed steps.
It will all be mere talk of bringing peace in Karachi if the government fails to take these steps. It is time for rulers to match their words with action. Failing to do so means that Karachiites should be prepared for more horrific incidents such as the one that recently occurred in Lyari. Yes, the bloodletting will continue in the same old fashion.
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