While the National Assembly passed a resolution for a countrywide deweaponisation campaign on Tuesday, the Senate had upheld a day earlier the need to first deweaponising the city of Karachi - and to some wonderment of people at large the ruling coalition's principal partner, PPP, supported both the resolutions. So the question why the authorities have failed to curb violence and enforce law and order in any meaningful manner all these years has its answer in this dubious stance of the coalition government. Not that the PPP is in favour of people brandishing illegal weapons or criminals making best use of their implements, in fact it is hard put not to offend its coalition partners MQM and ANP by taking sides. Going by the PPP leaders' statements in parliament or outside, that are generally confusing and often contradictory, it would be quite risky to conclude that the much-talked about need to deweaponising the city of Karachi or the country as a whole is about to begin anytime soon. Though much of the weaponry in the hands of anti-social elements is illegal, quite a few are licensed courtesy the myopic political leaderships' patronage. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
In the Senate, the ANP's stance that the deweaponisation should begin from Karachi carried the day not because it was more logical than of MQM's; it was accepted for the simple reason that it won support of anti-government parties in the upper house. But in the lower house, National Assembly, the ANP support couldn't muster the majority vote. Of course, whenever the question where to begin with comes up, quite a few fingers are raised in the direction of Karachi. No surprise then last month also the Senate supported ANP's Shahi Syed's resolution in the face of stiff opposition by the MQM legislators. The positions taken by political parties on the issue are essentially politically-motivated, frustrating efforts to clinch consensus on an issue as crucial as rampant lawlessness and uncontrollable violence in the city of teeming millions. But the state of law and order, not only in Karachi but across the country, is too frighteningly dangerous to brook serious action instead of merely debating it in parliament and passing cosmetic resolutions. One would say by far the parliament has failed to hammer away a concrete plan of action to rid the country of violence of which deweaponisation should be an essential part. Being nonchalant for good four years and eight months of an uninterrupted hold on the legislative power of the state, Interior Minister Malik should now ask for a dedicated session of the Senate in order to update laws in order to enhance effectiveness of their applicability, what else fits the definition of criminal neglect.
As to wherefrom the deweaponisation operation should begin, MQM and ANP hold contradictory positions, a situation that warrants an unbiased appraisal of the causes that have brought about this curse and how best to take care of them. One thing about which there are no two opinions is that it's not only the city of Karachi that needs deweaponisation; it is required all over the country. Then the question is how illegal weapons reach the dens of criminals from places of their origin which are mostly located far away in the north-west of Pakistan and who brings them. And why should the state appear to be encouraging gun culture by issuing licences quite often without due verification of credentials of the beneficiaries of these lethal gifts that are invariably brandished as crude display of political prowess than self-protection. With very few exceptions nowhere in the world are people asked to manage their own security. It is our hope that if at all deweaponising operation is launched it should be a countrywide initiative. There are criminals all over the place, not in Karachi alone. And this exercise should be preceded by a debate whether or not we need to allow people to brandish weapons - legal or illegal.
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