During the federal Apex Committee's recent meeting that reviewed implementation of the National Action Plan (NAP), Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah expressed his reservations about the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency's action in his province. He asked the Prime Minister as to why these agencies are active only in Sindh? In fact, that question is bothering not only the ruling PPP, many others have been voicing the same concern after the Rangers' raids on different government departments, confiscation by them of official records, arrests of bureaucrats and prominent personages. Soon afterwards, the NAB and FIA also got active. A while ago, justifying the campaign the Director General of the Sindh Rangers had come up with a report, saying influential individuals were involved in collecting as much as Rs 230 billion yearly from criminal activities, such as land grabbing and extortion and also that, there is a nexus between corruption and terrorism.
There is no denying that during the recent years the nation's economic capital has suffered a lot. Targeted killings, sectarian violence, extortion and kidnapping for ransom became a daily routine. An apex court bench hearing the Karachi law and order case had concluded that criminal elements in the city were patronized by influential individuals belonging to political parties and religious groups which said a lot about the style and standard of governance in the province. It was only proper therefore that a clean-up operation started with Karachi. In fact, the province's two major parties, the PPP and the MQM, gave the go-ahead to the ongoing security operation.
Corruption and terrorism, however, are not restricted to Sindh. Reports are galore of similar crimes in other provinces as well, especially in Punjab. The nature of crimes is different, and also the modus operandi of those involved in wrongdoing, but there are too many stories of land grabbing, misuse of public office for personal gains, and other forms of financial wrongdoing. The means employed may be more sophisticated than in Sindh but the end result is not different: the scourge of corruption undermining the peace and progress. There apparently is not a direct link between corruption and terrorism in other parts of the country. Yet the largest province is also known to be the home base of 'Punjabi Taliban', and certain violent extremist groups receiving huge sums of foreign funds with the knowledge of provincial and federal governments. In short, the bane of corruption and terrorism is present in their ugly manifestations in the other provinces as well. It is only natural for the people living in Sindh to wonder as to why an anti-corruption campaign is focused only on their part of the country. It is important therefore that the National Action Plan is implemented in an evenhanded manner so that it is seen not to be motivated by political considerations.