The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has completed a fact-finding mission in Karachi to ascertain the causes of the current wave of violence in the country’s largest metropolis in which heavy losses of life and property have already been caused.
According to a press release issued here on Monday, the fact-finding mission issued an interim statement on the situation in the city. In view of the importance of the task, the mission was headed by the HRCP chairperson and included the commission’s vice-chairpersons for Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh and senior members of the governing body.
The members of the mission held detailed discussions with representatives of political parties, lawyers, media persons, police officials, businessmen, teachers and intellectuals, hospital and medico-legal authorities and development experts. They also visited some of the worst affected areas, such as Katti Pahari, interviewed a number of affected families, and held a public hearing open to all citizens.
The testimonies gathered by the mission were being compiled and analyzed.
By way of interim observation, the HRCP states that Karachi was in the grip of a multi-sided wave of insecurity-driven political, ethnic and sectarian polarization that has greatly undermined its tradition of tolerance and good-neighbourliness.
While gangs of land-grabbers and mafias have tried to exploit the breakdown of law and order, they did not appear to be the main directors of the horrible game of death and destruction; that distinction belongs to more powerful political groups and it was they who hold the key to peace, it said.
The HRCP said that nearly all political parties agreed that it was necessary for all to respect each other’s position and legitimate interests, and desist from attempts to capture political heights through violence
According to the HRCP, it seems the problems inherent in Karachi’s urban growth and its expansion as an industrial and commercial mega city have not been tackled imaginatively or even properly appreciated.
It said that practically everybody the HRCP mission talked to called for de-weaponisation of Karachi and offered to join efforts in this direction. There was no reason why an all-party campaign to recover weapons, including the licensed ones, should not be launched.
The HRCP acknowledged the fact that various elements and factors have contributed to weakening of the state’s capacity to keep order, yet the ultimate responsibility for the present situation and for meeting it lies with the state.
The complaints against law-enforcing agencies received by the HRCP mission range from dereliction of duty, abandonment of post, and long delays in responding to distress calls to downright collusion with criminals. Unless these shortcomings are removed the people of Karachi can have little hope of peace and security, it said.
