Raza Khan


As the ruling political leaders, political parties and civil armed forces have failed to control the law and order situation in Karachi, apparently the Army is all set to take security responsibilities in the city which is witnessing total chaos for the last many months. The total breakdown of the law and order apparatus in Karachi was evident from the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) of March 7, to remove the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sindh apart from all other key police officials including DIG East and SSP Malir.
The order by the SCP was issued while hearing a suo moto case regarding the Abbbas Town bombing, which claimed tens of lives, almost all from the Shiite sect. The likelihood of the Army takeover of the city has increased manifold after the SCP observation that the Sindh government had failed to protect the lives of the people and the utter failure of police and paramilitary Rangers to control the law and order situation and acts of terror. The SCP also remarked that an operation clean up had become inevitable in Karachi. In a belated development President Asif Ali Zardari chaired a meeting on Karachi which decided to give 'freehand' to the policy and Rangers to deal with the terrorists and criminals. This may delay the Army takeover of Karachi but the Army has finally to take the city over anyway as the police is largely politicized and, therefore, cannot be expected to take fair action.

However, it is not clear whether the Army once deputed to the city would conduct a military operation there or not.

According to reports, the decision regarding controlling the situation in Karachi was taken by the Army. Although it is premature to say what would be the consequences of the decision, if Army takes up law and order duties in the port city; but good or bad it will have repercussions. In the short run the Army takeover of Karachi may result in improved law and order situation. This is, indeed, necessary because without deputing Army personnel, elections would be well-nigh impossible in the city. However, in the long run the continued presence of the Army in Karachi would create problems and history is testimony to this fact. Therefore, in order for the Army takeover of the city to be effective, this should continue until the next government takeover after the next elections.

Although eruption of ethnic and sectarian violence is not new to the port city but this time round its impact has been devastating. Moreover, the present violence is going to have far reaching political repercussions as the existing national and provincial assemblies are about to complete their respective tenure in a couple of weeks and the elections have to be held in 60 days.
It is important to note that if the military takes over Karachi it should not be surprising. Moreover, the political parties, particularly the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), should not manipulate the situation, as Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah, has stated that the establishment was trying to discredit the PPP. Because it is the utter failure of the PPP-MQM-ANP coalition government in the province, which could not control the law and order situation in Karachi while there has been least interest on the part of all these parties to act decisively, especially if external forces have been involved. The MQM's leaving and rejoining of the Sindh and federal government umpteenth times, are cases in point. So if the ruling political parties remain indecisive for such a long time the creation of a political vacuum is a natural corollary, and this has to be filled by other actors even non-political entities. Therefore, the Army cannot be held responsible for trying to fill the political vacuum. Otherwise, if the situation is left to fester, the consequences for the country could be very pernicious. So the fragility and indecisiveness of the political actors has had a disasterous effect.

It is also important to note that the PPP and the ANP since long have demanded handing over of Karachi to the Army for carrying out operations there. Strangely, the PPP and the ANP on the one hand, and the MQM on the other, have been accusing each other of staging the violence. Of late, these parties have started blaming terrorist sectarian organizations like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) for the present mayhem and terrorism in the city. The sectarian terrorist groups definitely have their contribution to the law and order problems in Karachi.

On the basis of our sources in Karachi and elsewhere in Pakistan, we have disclosed several times and much before the ANP, the MQM and the Interior Minister came to the conclusion that the ruling coalition parties apart from their own internal problem have been the target of sectarian and terrorist groups operating in the name of Islam. The TTP which since long has assumed the shape of an insurgency, along with al-Qaeda has had a definitive strategy regarding Karachi. Under this strategy the TTP-al-Qaeda combine has been trying to foment unrest in the city by killing members of the rival ethnic parties including the MQM, representing the Urdu-speaking migrant community from India; the ANP, representing Pakhtuns from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), FATA and upper Balochistan and the PPP largely representing Sindhi and Baloch communities. This strategy of the insurgents has worked wonders for them as all these ethnic-based political parties in Karachi have accused each other for the killings of their members. This led to the destabilization of the whole country as Karachi is not only the largest Pakistani city but also the economic hub. Naturally instability and shutting down of businesses and port operations in the city lead to economic volatility in the entire country.

Moreover, al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban as part of their strategy have wanted to create chaos to take advantage of the situation. Karachi has been the biggest sanctuary for al-Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban and Afghan Taliban commanders and fighters besides one of the main recruiting grounds for them. If one recalls, in 2010, the US FBI and Pakistani intelligence agents arrested a number of Afghan Taliban commanders from Karachi which included their No. 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Biradar. The al-Qaeda leader Omar Saeed Sheikh, who killed American journalist Daniel Pearl, carried out the crime in Karachi in one of the many sleeper cells of the outfit. Apart from that, al-Qaeda and the TTP have also wanted to control Karachi so as to disturb the NATO supplies to Afghanistan of which almost all land at the two ports of the city.

Federal Interior Minister Rahman Malik has been pointing at the involvement of the LeJ and al-Qaeda, but he never divulged the entire strategy of these groups. The recent claims of Rahman Malik regarding the involvement of the LeJ in the violence in Karachi are quite substantive. He has also accused the Punjab government of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) of having struck a deal with the LeJ, that the latter would not conduct any terrorist attacks in the province and in return the PML-N government would not strike at the group's hideouts. These are, indeed, serious allegations to which the PML-N has not been able to respond satisfactorily. So if the violence and terrorism in Karachi as well as Quetta has to be addressed, this aspect of the problem has also to be meaningfully addressed. However having said this, the failure of the PPP-MQM-ANP to control the law and order situation in Karachi cannot be overlooked. Now the future of peace in Karachi depends on how the Army deals with the situation before and during the next elections.

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