Violence erupts in Karachi with periodic regularity. Every third or fourth month the city goes through a spike in the incidence of targeted killings - though not a day passes when an odd citizen doesn't lose his life to the vicious unidentified killer. The present surge, however, is a departure from the past, in that instead of individuals being waylaid and killed, there was a full-fledged armed attack on traders of the Shershah Kabari (scrap) Market.
A dozen or so armed motorbike-riding gangsters stormed the market, in a formation like the ones we see in films, and sprayed the people present there with bullets fired from AK-47s. If anyone tried to escape, he was chased to death. The attackers left only after they had accomplished their grisly mission. By the time the police and Rangers arrived they were gone, as it always happened in Karachi.
A city of more than 15 million people, which produces 25 percent of the country's GDP and 68 percent of government revenue, lives at the mercy of bandits, hooligans and hoodlums, that's unbelievable. And what comes to pass at the official level following such an incident is grossly deceptive, at least in terms of concrete action. As accusations and counter-accusations fly across the political landscape, the governments, in Karachi and Islamabad, promptly dish out the routine pledge to 'bring back the lights of Karachi by catching criminals and ensuring return of peace and tranquillity'. As President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani make telephone calls to the leaderships of the MQM and other stakeholders, Interior Minister Rehman Malik flies in and meets the local powerbrokers. That has happened once again as the present spell of violence lasts.
Given that the attack on the Shershah market was more organised and coincidental as it is to the presently heightened political bipolarisation, the power-centres with stakes in the control of Karachi have reacted much more vociferously. The MQM, caught by the horns of a dilemma, whether to remain part of federal ruling coalition or part company with, in protest against the Sindh chapter of the PPP, is largely immobilised excepting for its usual claim that 'there is no such thing as a government in Sindh'.
As of today, it doesn't seem to be working to rock the Zardari boat, and its criticism is confined to pointing out bad governance and poor law-enforcement in the province of Sindh - which it believes can improve if Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza is asked to relinquish his post. Simply stated, the MQM would like to keep intact its coalition partnership with the PPP and a relatively better-equipped and empowered Rangers force. It is against the deployment of the army, as against the ANP's persistent demand that regular soldiers be asked to take over law and order of Karachi; a demand supported by only a part of the local PPP leadership, but opposed by the top leadership in Islamabad.
Since a call for military deployment has to be made by the provincial government, after conceding its failure to run the province the PPP leadership would not agree to make such a demand. So, the standpoints of both the MQM and PPP suffer from irrationality and self-contradiction, making it difficult for them to squarely face the challenge of securing peace for the residents of Karachi.
In fact, there is a broader perspective to the issue of a peaceful Karachi. Its peace and tranquillity is not only hostage to the differing positions taken by the political stakeholders; even more formidable challenges exist in the shape of the politicised administration, the prevalence of sharply-edged ethnicity and a flourishing underworld of mafias and criminal gangs, some independent and others nurtured and patronised by politicians. Of course every provincial government would like to have its own men in the administration, and given the fact that haughty, elected leaders brook no 'disloyalty', government servants, taking the path of least resistance, fall in line.
This is something which can be taken care of by the judiciary by upholding the obligation of government servants to weigh in with the state in case of its conflict with the government. There is ample law on the statute book that protects government servants against political interference and excesses; but what needs to be done is to apply them. Deployment of the army is the least attractive option in the given situation. As to why Rangers are not effective, there must a few good reasons that must be looked into and addressed. Then there is the mosaic of ethnicity which is wrongly blamed for the periodic spells of violence in Karachi.
Accepted, the political culture has failed to obtain conditions for peaceful coexistence of various ethnic segments of society and that over the last few years, the divisions along ethnic lines have been allowed to deepen. But that is not something peculiar to Karachi; in all mega-metropolitans - be it Hong Kong, New York or Mumbai - people of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds peacefully coexist. What holds peace between them is the rule of law. And as for the mafias and criminal gangs, it is the government's duty to rid society of such cancerous malaises. No matter who rules and which party is in political control of Karachi, gangs and mafias should not be tolerated - what to talk of being their patron. Peace in Karachi is an achievable goal, what is missing so far is clear and nonpartisan commitment.