Even at the best of times, Lyari isn’t exactly the citadel of peace and stability. But the ongoing operation has revealed just how well entrenched the gangs of the locality are. Not thugs of the switchblades and guns variety, Lyari gangsters dabble with rocket launchers and heavy gunnery. Nineteen people, including three policemen, one of them a SHO, have been killed in the current operation. Our hearts go out to the families of the deceased and tribute must be paid to the policemen risking their lives for the rule of law.
However, certain issues need to be addressed. A newer strand of chic, elite middle-class Karachiites, who are quick to run down any analysis of the city’s politics by “outsiders” as ill-informed, are quicker still to point out, whenever the MQM is made the target of criticism, that the city is actually a complex and sensitive eco-system, one that lies on many faultlines. That it would be too simplistic to blame the MQM exclusively. Sound words. But they argue, for all practical purposes, that elements within the party shouldn’t be clamped down on, the way those belonging to other parties should be. They cheer whenever the state stages a crackdown in Lyari or Sohrab Goth or Benaras. A curiously inconsistent point of view, one that is continuously being parroted by the Karachi-based broadcast media.
If Karachi actually is a powderkeg city that lies on many tripwires, perhaps it would do the government a whole lot of good to start these operations in different areas simultaneously. There cannot be a better time than when the three principal parties are in the provincial government. An action of this scale would require effective canvassing and the impulse to bow down to media pressure would be immense.
There shouldn’t be peace in Karachi. There should be a just peace. Selective actions like the one in Lyari will only serve to strengthen the narrative that state retribution in Karachi will only be against the PPP or the ANP, making the situation worse in the longer run.
