The PML-N is hinting at the army-pushed backchannel diplomacy as the best solution to restore peace in Karachi, rebuffing options including Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s resignation, surgical operations and army’s full-scale operation.
Well-placed sources in the PML-N told Pakistan Today that the army-aided backchannel diplomacy was the only workable formula that would reap quickest results in the shortest time.
“Best solution to undo the violence in Karachi is basically what PML-N President Nawaz Sharif demands, that is, parliament should play its role in the light of intelligence reports to be submitted by security and law enforcement agencies,” the sources said, adding, “However, it is a time-taking procedure,” They said according to the PML-N, it was better to let the army to come into play to galvanise the backchannel diplomacy to quell violence in Karachi.
In a telephonic conversation, PML-N Information Secretary Mushahidullah Khan said the solution to Karachi lay in the four-pronged strategy.
He said first the army did not need to take Karachi into its direct control instead should influence police, the Rangers and other law enforcement agencies to repel all sorts of pressure, including political consideration, to flush out outlaws from Karachi.
Mushahid said the second option was dissolving the Sindh Assembly and imposing the governor’s rule to bring peace in Karachi, adding that the third option, would be an across-the-board-army operation. “Though efficacy of the strategy will be short-lived, it won’t be bad if other methodologies do not work. If none of the option is implemented, let there be snap polls at the earliest, which is a democratic way to make a turnaround,” Khan said.
He said the government was a real model of failure and it was better to get rid of it. “Zardari’s politics of reconciliation has changed into the politics of hostility,” the PML-N information secretary said. PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid said Nawaz’s demand for submission of intelligence reports on Karachi to parliament could turn the situation from bad to good. “We believe that intelligence agencies transpire the hidden hands and if they are negligent, then parliament should scrap their budget forthwith,” Rashid claimed.
