Karachi violence

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It burns again

Karachi seemed quite calm on the fine morning of March 27, 2012. Most of the city was asleep, and those awake were busy getting ready for another routine day. The city government?s garbage collection machinery could still be seen on the streets and sweepers had just started their job of keeping the city clean when on that fateful morning television channels broke the news: ?Two Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) men killed in PIB Colony.?
Within no time television channels started showing burning minibuses and other vehicles, and all those businessmen who start their business early in the morning returned back to the safety of their homes from halfway through to the markets. Nearly 42 cars, buses and rickshaws were set ablaze that day and another wave of violence in the city that was paused after the Supreme Court?s intervention, reared up its head once again.
Residents of this city, who usually remain ready to face any unpleasant situation, were once again seen confined to their houses.
With eight persons being killed till the last evening of March, the death toll reached 15 in this fresh wave of the notorious ?target killing? incidents in Karachi. On the morning of April 1, 2012, the city started returning to normal life after a weeklong wave of violence that started with the killing of two persons and ended with the deaths of 15 persons. Beside the deaths, several people were also injured and hundreds of vehicles were burnt during the three-day mourning. Pakistan?s commercial hub observed a wheel jam and a complete shutter down for around four days.
It is now assumed by the general public that peace in Karachi is nothing more than a pause between two waves of violence; this unfortunately has become an identity of this city.
It is not new for Karachi, but the city has witnessed hundreds of what local newspapers have termed ?waves of violence? in the last two decades. Violence in Karachi has long existed, even well before the Talibanisation in Karachi debate started.
In 2011, according to a Human Rights Commission of Pakistan?s report, Karachi experienced an exceptionally high level of violence and around 1300 citizens were killed in the city during 2011 alone.
Once I asked a foreign friend of mine what exactly she knew about Pakistan, she promptly replied, ?Drone attacks, Taliban, television anchors and target killings.? The term ?target killing?, a phrase usually associated with the shootings by gunmen who flee from the scene on motorcycles, has become a stigma for the city. But that?s not the worst of it; the worst are the incidents which start right after any such incident of target killing.
Before the recent wave of violence, several political events were held in Karachi, including a mammoth public gathering by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), one by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), another by a group of parties with a religious bent under the banner of Difa-e-Pakistan Council, a telephonic address by former army chief Pervez Musharraf, an extraordinary women gathering by MQM and a recent gathering of tens of thousands of activists of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM). The city saw no incident of violence and remained peaceful while the general public assumed that all these political parties had learnt to tolerate each other and give space to everyone. But this assumption was crushed among the news bulletins, roaring Kalashnikovs, sirens of ambulances and statements by different political leaders against each other. It soon became the same old violent routine.
Karachi is a city of hapless people [Karachi bay bassoon ka shar hay] where common citizens, law enforcement agencies and the entire government machinery seem helpless against violence. Even the journalists and most powerful media houses seem to have no clue as to how this violence can be eliminated.
It is sad to watch the largest city of Pakistan, which contributes the biggest chunk in the national revenue and provides jobs and shelter to Pakistanis from every nook and corner, entangled in a bloody mess called target killing. What?s worrying is that everybody knows but no one would name who is behind these incidents. Despite tall claims made by the government, target killers have not been arrested. Recently, Interior Minister Rehman Malik claimed to have arrested some target killers and announced that they would be disclosed on television channels and would be punished publicly so that no one else could ever repeat such incidents, but all his announcements have yet to prove true.
Common citizens, lawyers, rickshaw and bus drivers, shopkeepers, policemen, journalists and even women and children in Karachi have fallen prey to these target killing incidents.
Apart from bhatta [extortion], personal enmities, tug of war between various land mafias, sectarian, political and ethnic bifurcation, Karachi has now many more causes behind these incidents.
Right after the last wave of violence in the city, the Supreme Court of Pakistan took a suo motu notice, started a month-long hearing in the city and directed police authorities and the Sindh High Court to send reports on city?s law and order situation on daily basis. During the hearing, authorities informed the court of several reasons behind these killings.
The Inspector General (IG) of Police told the court that 40 percent of police officials had been recruited on political grounds. He also complained lack of personnel to keep the security of the city. The IG stated that the total strength of police force was 32,524, out of which approximately 12,000 were performing security duties at important placecs, a further 8,000 were deployed with VIPs and only 20,000 were left for the purpose of policing the 18 million people in Karachi.
The court was also told that more than 30 groups, including the mainstream political parties like Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), MQM, Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), religious parties and even the banned militant outfits, were involved in extortion and those who did not pay, fell victim to these incidents.
The Supreme Court was also informed that there were more than three million illegal immigrants living in the provincial capital, many oh whom were involved in these incidents. Mr Malik announced that each of these immigrants would be registered at police stations and all of them would be sent back to their respective countries. But the people of Karachi hardly believe Rehman Malik.
These illegal immigrants comprise of mostly Bengalis and Bihrais who have held huge rallies in the city and demanded national identity cards and citizenship for them. Pervez Musharraf, now PTI?s and former PML(N)?s leader Javed Hashmi and even the MQM have supported their demands whereas Sindhi nationalists reject their demands and insist that they should be sent back, as their presence will convert Sindhis into a minority.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) chief justice was asked by the Supreme Court to keep an eye on the Karachi situation and take action if there was any violence in the city. SHC has taken a suo motu notice of the killing spree in the port city of Karachi and has asked the law enforcement agencies to submit a report. It now seems that the law enforcement in Karachi is not the sole responsibility of police and Rangers, but also that of the judiciary?s.
The ruling PPP government has always claimed that these target killing incidents are conspiracies against the democratic government of PPP. It has held All Parties Conference (APC) many times since 2008. During these APCs, attended by almost all the political parties, a code of conduct was drawn out which directs parties to remove their flags from the city, erase provoking walk chalking and graffiti, and not to issue any statements that harm the peace of the city. All participants agreed on that but practically all of them were involved in violating the said code of conduct later on. With every wave of violence in the city, the MQM alleges PPP-supported Aman Committee, ANP and MQM(Haqiqi) to be behind these incidents while these three hold MQM responsible for these incidents.
Some of the political analysts are of the view that the MQM wants a portfolio in the federal cabinet for its newly elected Senator, Mustafa Kamal, while the ANP wants a portfolio for its Senator and provincial chief, Shahi Syed. So, both parties are mounting pressure on their coalition partner, PPP, through violence in Karachi to get their desired portfolios. If the PPP government gives any one of them a portfolio in the federal cabinet, it would be hard pressed to offer the same to the other party. And this is something PPP cannot afford at the time.
There are independent reports that the Aman Committee, ANP and MQM(Haqiqi) are going to make an unannounced alliance comprising of Pashtuns, Muhajirs, Sindhis and Baloch before the next elections to give tough time to MQM. The MQM, in response, has demanded a ban on the MQM(Haqiqi) and it, according to independent analysts, wants to hit back at the government by giving a message that no such effort will be tolerated.
The experts on the Karachi?s law and order situation are of the view that the recent violence is a result of a war between those who want to keep the status quo and those who want to change it.
Some politicians, like PPP?s Zulfiqar Mirza and PTI?s Imran Khan, have always remained very vocal on the Karachi situation and have publicly alleged MQM to be responsible for every wave of violence. But this time, their silence is is too obvious.
Due to his bold statements, Imran Khan was banned twice to enter Karachi last year. But independent sources claim that the PTI?s Karachi public gathering on December 25, 2012 was supported by MQM. That?s why he is silent now. As far as Mirza is concerned, he made his famous speech on someone?s ?directives? and same ?directives? are now asking him to keep silent.
These target killings are not just limited to MQM and ANP. Almost every political, or otherwise, group in Karachi has lost, or at least claims of having lost, workers. How long these target killings would haunt the Karachiites, no one seems to have an answer.

The writer is a seasoned journalist.

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