Army not a solution to Karachi

Diversified conflicts amongst criminal gangs, ethnic communities and political rivals in Karachi most frequently create ugly scenes wherein the innocent people of the city are continuously suffering the loss of life and property. On the top of all, militants too are exploiting the worsened situation for years. The successive governments, including military regimes in Sindh that mostly comprised the MQM as well, have failed to bring back the normalcy. Hence calls for the corrective measures to curb the unrest in Karachi do echo from quarters concerned from time to time. Of late, it was the president-elect who gave an insertion in a TV interview that the army’s assistance could be sought for restoration of peace in Karachi, and now the MQM chief Altaf Hussain, embattling against falling health and probe into money laundering in the UK, too has joined the chorus demanding the administration of Karachi be handed over to army. The latest public rhetoric from the two political leaders must have given a rude shock to the saner minds and souls engaged in a long political struggle for democracy and for the civil liberties. Suffice to remind here, the General Musharraf-led army regime, too tried its muscles against miscreants but it never succeeded in curbing violence rather the miscreants gained more strength, making strong inroads in the street politics of Karachi. If the history is something to learn from, the calls for handing over the responsibilities of the city to army sound illogical and unjustified on two counts first; the army deployment had been tried and tested earlier, and secondly, the armed forces are already engaged on the western and eastern borders of the country apart from fighting a full scale war on terror in the FATA, the KPK and Balochistan thus it can hardly afford more engagement. In difficult socio-political conflicts, the civil governments, sometimes, do face failures to give a matching response to the situation yet sagacious and sincere political leadership never gives up its efforts to hammer out solution to the civil issues. But the same is not true for Pakistan. Unfortunately, the president-elect has shown his inexperience on matters of such serious nature hence he made a premature observation on this sensitive issue, and perhaps the MQM chief, living abroad for too long, is not fully aware of the ground realities of today. Otherwise before jumping to such conclusion in the first three months of the new government, he should offered his all-out support to the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on the Karachi unrest case that has given perfect remedies to the worsening law and order situation there. Even today, the decision stands valid for implementation. The SC called for depoliticizing police, disbanding criminal gangs and death squads in political parties. Unfortunately, the previous coalition regime of the PPP and the MQM ignored the decision somehow or the other. To bring the situation under the control, Karachi needs supremacy and rule of law that comes through strong political will and strict adherence to the court verdicts because no amount of military might can restore peace till the political leadership bows to laws of the land. First all political leaders had come clean of all accusations otherwise even their just calls too sound mere public oratory.