THE raid on the MQM headquarters, the arrest of criminals convicted for different offences and the seizure of weapons is a watershed event in the campaign to restore law and order and peace in Karachi. However, the exercise is doomed to failure and a backlash may ensue if it is not taken to its logical end through political, judicial and administrative support.

The campaign to separate crime from politics in Karachi will not succeed if it is not supported by politicians across the political divide. No solution to the Karachi conflict is plausible until the root causes for the unrest in the city are addressed. The root cause is the turf war for control of extortion money by some elements present in major political parties and religiously motivated militants.

The link between the criminal underworld and political parties, disempowering people at the local government level, political injustices like the quota system, a leadership accused of and tainted by corruption, and atrocious governance are the other causes for this rot.

An ineffective law-enforcement apparatus in the shape of a heavily politicised police which acts as the handmaiden of politicians is incapable of taking on the regimented criminal enterprise organised at the unit and sector level in the only megacity of Pakistan.

If the army has taken it upon itself to act as a deus ex machina, leading the reluctant and timorous political leadership on a crime-busting odyssey, it has to ensure that the political resolve of all stakeholders is commandeered well and proper without which their entire voyage is bound in shallows and miseries.

Brig(r) Raashid Wali Janjua
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2015

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