If the idea was to recover caches of weapons or nab terrorists in Karachi, the announcement of an impending curfew by Rehman Malik has made it doubtful by depriving the operation of the much needed element of surprise. By the time a selective curfew is imposed, the weapons would have been removed and wanted person gone underground. Targeted killings have gone on in Karachi during the last more than two years of Rehman Maliks tenure without any interruption causing hundreds of deaths of political activists. Several times during the period the interior minister has assured the distraught populace that measures taken by him would finally put an end to the chilling murders. Every time they were disappointed, with the result that the interior minister now badly suffers from credibility deficit.
The interior minister has accused an enigmatic third party of creating differences and disharmony among the PPP, MQM and ANP. Instead of mystifying the matter he should have specified who that force was. As things stand, more bad blood has been created between some of the partners in the ruling coalition by his own statement than any other factor. Soon after the announcement, senior PPP legislators from Sindh talked to media accusing Malik of cutting deals with the MQM secretly. Fauzia Wahab told a national daily that they had come to know about Maliks meetings with the MQM only through the media. ANP leader Haji Adeel expressed reservations about Maliks strategy maintaining that it would have been better if all the coalition partners had been consulted. Rejecting an operation by the FIA cum Rangers proposed by Malik, the ANP leader suggested an indiscriminate operation by the army instead. Had the interior minister taken other parties and stakeholders into confidence before the announcement, a situation of the type would not have arisen.
There is a perception that the interior minister often makes dramatic announcements without prior discussion with stakeholders and taking all aspects into consideration, a prominent example being the announcement to hand over to the FC powers enjoyed by the police in Quetta. The next day the Prime Minister had rejected the idea. Announcements of the type only tend to exacerbate suspicions among the allies.
