Raid on Nine-Zero

With bonhomie generated by the unanimous nomination of Raza Rabbani as Chairman of the Senate unanimous still permeating through the national political landscape the Rangers' raid on the MQM headquarters (Nine Zero) early Wednesday morning comes as a stunning shock. How come a major political party with wide popular following in the country is in actuality a criminal mafia, many ask. The raid leading to arrest of scores of MQM workers and recovery of a huge cache of sophisticated weapons was a set-up, as was its carefully calibrated media projection, insists the MQM leadership. The paramilitary force, Rangers, says the raid was against a bunch of convicted and alleged criminals who had taken shelter at the Nine-Zero, and not against the MQM as a political party. And as a proof the Rangers have taken in custody among others one Faisal Mota who has been sentenced to death for his involvement in the murder of TV reporter Wali Khan Babar in absentia. The Rangers also claim that the recovered weapons were possibly stolen from the Nato containers. But the MQM rejects this, saying the arrests were made from the neighbourhood and not the Nine-Zero and that the weapons were brought in and put on show by the Rangers. On the question as to who killed the MQM worker, Waqas Shah, the two sides have contradictory stands. What then is the truth in the matter - that must be known, because at the stake is peace of the country's biggest city. Of course, the Rangers' action, which Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali says was carried out on the basis of "specific intelligence reports", rightly fills the bill of a nation-wide anti-terrorism drive in compliance with the National Action Plan to which the MQM is a signatory.
The MQM chief himself endorses, albeit obliquely, the Rangers' action by asking 'if someone had committed some mistakes he could have taken shelter somewhere else instead of Nine-Zero. It brought the entire party under crises'. And in a way this also brings to bear the bitter truth that almost all political parties, including the MQM, have been infiltrated by the mafia elements, some as part of their armed wings. One would hate to think that the MQM is guilty of double-speak - that as it demands Karachi be handed over to the military it is critical of the Rangers' operation to cleanse the megacity of criminal mafias and hardened criminals. Unfortunately, however, there is not yet a fuller realisation of the distortions the armed wings cause to the images of their parties. Grossly dismaying is the kind of a rash reaction that dominated the opposition benches in the Senate on its last day of life. What 'timing' they were talking about when Rangers did what they were supposed to be doing when they learnt that nominated and sentenced convicts were present at Nine-Zero. Instead of leaving the house in a huff the Senators should have stayed on for a serious discussion on the raid, which they found untimely but the ground realities found quite timely.
One may not share the then chairman-designate Rabbani's verdict that the Rangers' action was "regrettable", but is a call for the political parties 'to purge themselves of extremist elements' sonorously resonates the public demand. As to how this raid on the MQM headquarters plays out in days to come, it would be naïve to predict. But it would be in the interest of both the MQM leadership and the Rangers high command that a transparent investigation is conducted and the guilty are brought to justice. At the same time, it is in the MQM's own interest that its anger is not vented at the cost of public peace in a city of teeming millions.