Recourse to encounters
Apart from the presence of religious and sectarian extremists, Karachi’s law and order situation is also jeopardised by political and ethnic militants, as well as criminal gangs. But while the city’s crime and militancy problems are indeed major and require effective approaches to tackle them, the answer certainly does not lie in relying on extrajudicial methods to address the violence. Of late, there has been an uptick in the number of alleged encounters and extrajudicial killings in the city.
The MQM cried foul when a party member died in police custody on Jan 10. While police claimed the man was in possession of an illegal weapon and had confessed to several murders, other reports indicated that the individual was tortured in custody. Following the man’s death, party leaders said the Muttahida was being targeted both by religious extremists and the security establishment, while the MQM shut down the city on Sunday in protest. Around the same time as the custodial death, the bodies of three MQM supporters were discovered on the outskirts of the metropolis bearing torture marks. Meanwhile, several suspected religious militants have been gunned down in alleged encounters over the past few days. Two suspects with reported links to Al Qaeda and the banned TTP were killed by police on Tuesday, while two individuals allegedly belonging to militant groups were also shot a day earlier.
It is not only political parties that are complaining about the extrajudicial deaths of their workers; civil society activists have also raised concerns about the all-too-frequent encounters in Karachi. Supporters of Sindhi and Baloch nationalist groups have also been targeted. It appears likely that some within the law-enforcement apparatus are using the cover of anti-militancy operations to settle scores and eliminate suspects by circumventing the criminal justice system.
Yet in a civilised, democratic society there is simply no room for extralegal methods. Especially now, with the creation of military courts — despite their drawbacks — the law-enforcement agencies have no excuse to skip the investigation and prosecution process and play executioner. The criminal justice system surely needs a massive overhaul, while militancy in Karachi must be addressed through firm action. But neither of these realities can justify extrajudicial killings. The authorities need to fix the investigation and prosecution systems, at the same time making it clear to law enforcers that no extralegal methods will be tolerated when it comes to dealing with militancy and crime.
Confrontation again
It proved to be the shortest of hiatuses. Even in the immediate aftermath of the Peshawar school carnage, there were questions about just how long the pause in the long-running feud between the PML-N and PTI/PAT could last.
Now, the country knows the answer: less than a month. When the PTI unilaterally called off its anti-government protests, the rulers had an opportunity to end the long-running crisis by constituting a high-powered commission to investigate PTI allegations of fraud and malfeasance in the May 2013 general election. But the PML-N did not take the initiative and soon enough the quarrelling restarted. The PTI claimed the PML-N was reneging on its promises; the PML-N claimed the PTI kept shifting the goalposts and expanding its demands. Neither side seemed particularly concerned that the most urgent issue — developing a coherent, workable plan to combat militancy and extremism — was suffering as a result of the squabbling.
It was also only a matter of time before the supporting cast also became involved. Sure enough, and seemingly on cue, the PAT has announced that it will restart its own protests against the government a day before the PTI will re-congregate near Constitution Avenue in Islamabad. At this point, six months since the PTI and PAT launched their Islamabad campaign to oust the government, there is little new to be said about the individual culpability of the major protagonists. By now, the PML-N should have notified the formation of a high-powered commission to investigate alleged electoral fraud in May 2013 and completed the process of electoral reforms. That neither of those steps has been taken is the result of the PML-N’s recalcitrance.
What after all could the PTI’s legitimate complaints be had a high-powered, manifestly independent and substantively empowered investigation commission been formed by the government? Surely, pressure would be on the PTI to accept such a commission and not insist on its own tailored version of one. Similarly, the process of electoral reforms did not have to become an issue to be sorted out privately between the PML-N and the PTI and could have been entrusted to parliament in substance and not only in form.
Yet, for all the PML-N does wrong, the PTI manages to set new lows in terms of a focus on the parochial. Post-Peshawar, the PTI could have used its demonstrable ability to shape the national political discourse to focus on the militancy threat. Instead, the party appears to have chosen to do the bare minimum — support military courts, make perfunctory suggestions to improve security in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — and then immediately return to its politics of protest. When more was needed and expected, the PTI once again has chosen to disappoint and under-deliver. It is a vain hope that the imminent return to the politics of confrontation will be brief.
Merkel’s resolve
IT may not have had the dimensions of Sunday’s Paris march, but Tuesday’s rally in Berlin symbolised the German leadership’s determination to preserve the country’s multicultural character in the face of a rising wave of xenophobia, a large part of it in reaction to acts of terrorism carried out in the name of Islam. While President Joachim Gauck said Germany had become more diverse “religiously, culturally and mentally”, Chancellor Angela Merkel pledged to use “all the means at our disposal” to combat intolerance. The challenge before the Merkel government shouldn’t be underestimated. Home to four million Muslims, mostly Turkish immigrants, Germany has been witnessing a growth in support for extremist groups many of whom have been mobilising people against the government’s immigration policy; some groups display their Islamophobia openly. The most notorious of them is Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the West, which on Monday organised a rally in Dresden. Another anti-immigrant group gaining attention is Alternative for Germany. Both are anti-Muslim and demand stricter immigration and asylum policies. The Dresden marchers carried Chancellor Merkel’s doctored pictures showing her wearing a scarf. Fortunately, rallies in other cities have drawn fewer participants.
There can be no doubt that murderous attacks such as the Charlie Hebdo killings only strengthen anti-Muslim lobbies worldwide, creating difficulties for those who believe in tolerance and pluralism. While the far right in the West is in a minority, many among the majority do listen to what it has to say when terrorists spill innocent blood. The killers should know that whether it is 9/11, the London bombings, the Mumbai attack or Paris, the losers are Muslims worldwide, especially those who have made the West their home and want to live in peace. Chancellor Merkel has made no secret of her determination to take on the extremists, and declared at Tuesday’s rally that “xenophobia, racism, extremism, have no place” in Germany. Hopefully Muslim community leaders in the West will support the chancellor’s inclusive stance — whether in the fight against European xenophobia or Islamist militancy.
Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2015.