By Saeed Qureshi
Pakistan is emerging as one of the most
unsafe places for its citizens. Karachi, a port city and leading industrial metropolis
has become the battleground for gang wars, target assassinations and
extortions. The criminals and outlaws seem to be more daring and overpowering
than the law and order outfits.
There is a free-for-all mayhem devouring
precious lives every day and every moment.
It looks as if a mini civil war was underway that might erupt into a
full-fledged war sooner than later.
Karachi is divided into so called “no go areas” where merciless gangs
keep their sway as local lords. They fight back if another gang wants to take
over their area of control. The leaders, bureaucrats, and high government
functionaries are escorted and protected by an army of bodyguards and bullet
and bombproof vehicles.
However, the ordinary citizens are direly exposed to the persistent lurking
threat to their lives. The people are turning paranoid or senseless about the
gruesome tragedies and horrifying killing sprees going on around them. People
are dying every day because the killers shoot or kill them with rare abandon or
without any fear of state writ.
There is an atmosphere of dread and fear that pervades every lane and
street, public place and every mind. Those who eke out their living by ordinary
means on road side stalls, or kiosks or the peddlers or the laborers are also
targeted by the invisible assassins whose prime motive is to destabilize and
destroy the normal life and scuttle the smooth commuting of the people whether
by walking or in vehicles.
In the wake of escalating lawlessness and
soaring gang wars for sinister motives
in Karachi, the government and its law and order agencies seem to be either
unmindful or crippled .The target killings before the eyes of the karachiites,
Pakistan and the entire world is surging unabated.
There are rangers, and there are government moles and intelligence
network, police and sometimes troops but all these have failed to contain or
break the chain of killing of innocent civilians. It is evident that the successive civilian governments both federal and
Sindh provincial government have failed to halt or diminish the escalating and
unremitting cycle of massacre of the people by mafias, gangsters, trigger happy
killers, extortionists and enemy agents.
Under these stifling conditions, there is no
harm if strife-torn and terrorism infested city of Karachi is handed over to the
armed forces for a specific period of time. The incumbent government elected
with the popular franchise should summon army to restore order and safe
environment.
If the civilian law and order agencies have thus far failed to curb the
mushrooming violence then let this city be handed over to the army that has the
capability and muscle to curb fast spreading violence. The political parties
and civil society institutions should support the army’s deployment in Karachi
for this most urgent task of restoring order and peace.
The social and business circles are crying
hoarse for the deployment of army in the largest city of Pakistan to quell the
sinews of a mini simmering civil war. The office bearers of the federal chamber
of commerce and industry are imploring the government to come to their rescue
against the extortionists. The business community is moving to other cities of
Pakistan and gradually the shops, the business centers and even industries are
closing down.
If army takes control of Karachi it should
impose curfew from dusk to dawn and if necessary for parts at day time. Its
first and the foremost task should be to de-weaponize Karachi. It should cordon
off and lay siege of notorious localities one by one. The male members should be ordered to assemble
during the curfew hours at a certain place and during that time their residences
and hiding places should be reached.
The army is fully trained and capable of
dealing with the emergencies. But just by way of advice, it should deploy contingents
in markets, schools, hospitals, bus stops and similar other public places to
ward off and if necessary haul the miscreants. The army should be given powers
to hold summary trials, flush out the known criminals and bad characters and to
sort out their activities.
The army should have powers to kill the trouble
makers on the spot. With such drastic strategy that can be only executed by the
army on war footing, that this mammoth menace and burgeoning curse of terrorism
and crime can be definitively nailed.
It is extremely inevitable that all the
foreign residents living in Karachi should be ordered to register themselves. Those
who are illegal must be deported without fail and hesitation. Those with legal
status should be checked and their activities and places of living minutely
verified.
They should be asked to report their presence periodically
at the local police stations. The police stations should be told to keep an eye
on them. Those among the local population harboring the illegal aliens must be
dealt with severely.
The war with an external enemy might be a
remote possibility. But the country needs to move against the war within the
country that is wreaking havoc with the social peace and economy; all the more the
port city of Karachi that generates a big chunk of wealth for the country.
It is utterly indispensable to stop the
sectarian violence that is overtaking Karachi with the passage of time. The ideological
confrontations between the rival sects are taking a heavy toll of human life in
Karachi. Without fear or favor the army should come down with a very hand on
all religious militancy and curb it with full might and backing of the
government and political forces.
Even
if the “all parties’ conference” is convened, an iron clad remedy of this
ostensibly intractable sore cannot be found out. Even if a consensus is brought
about among the divergent political groups, still who is going to chase and
engage in bloody combats with the dangerously armed and profusely organized
goons.
There is no way that the parleys among the
political parties can be effective is stamping out the escalating terrorism and
violence. The reason for such a failure is that these political parties aid and
abet the sectarian killers, the mafias, the gangs, the extortionists and all
those elements destabilizing the country. The stalwarts of these social and political
outfits receive a share of the looted money from the bounty killers,
extortionists, kidnappers and other rogue elements.
The present government of PMLN that was ousted
through a military coup or reaction should shed its psychological phobias and
inhibitions and consent to army’s taking over Karachi for a limited time period.
For inexplicable reasons the PPP provincial government in Sindh is also
strongly opposing the military operation in Karachi.
One wonders if rangers and police have proven
to be totally ineffective then why they want this mayhem to continue that is
turning Karachi into a ghost city and killing its spirit of openness and
liveliness.
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