THERE is almost daily debate in TV talk shows on the recent statement by Rehman Malik that the law and order situation in Karachi will worsen in February.

Sheikh Rasheed, for the last so many months, has been pointing towards this situation during the coming elections.

Almost all participants, including anchors in these talk shows, are unanimous that Rehman Malik’s information must be based on the intelligence gathered by different agencies which are almost under his direct control.

Being a senior citizen with a rich professional background, I, however, have a different perspective.

The forecast by our federal interior minister should be surprising for anyone of us because we have believed it if we consider that no one else than Rehman Malik knows much better that during these five years how many hardcore and convicted criminals he, his party and his government had released from prisons on the ground that they had been sentenced by previous governments.

Recently, we heard of another remarkable deed regarding hundreds of dangerous prisoners who went missing mysteriously. Actually, they had been released on parole. Their  whereabouts as well as that of their guarantors are not available today.

And now the gang war, of which ‘February’ is a part of, for controlling independent ‘bhatta’ exclusive jurisdictions.

JAVED     Karachi