You can’t make everyone happy all the time and only if the PPP-led Sindh government could comprehend this fact, Karachi would not be in its current state of lawlessness. The toothless and indecisive provincial government, which is made up of unnatural bedfellows, is in a habit of taking U-turns and bad decisions.
Recently, the government ordered a crackdown, to be carried out only by Rangers, in some areas of the city that are dominated by ANP. Many ANP activists were arrested, provoking a severe response from the party. It threatened to leave the coalition governments, both federal and provincial. A couple of days later, these people were released as mysteriously as there were held.
What was achieved out of this futile exercise? Were the people arrested actually criminals and if they were, why were they released? Was it because PPP needs ANP’s support on certain issues in the parliament? If this is the case, why was the action ordered in the first place? To appease another coalition partner, the MQM, perhaps because it needs support from that side as well. These antics are not new.
The current Sindh government has been doing this juggling act since its inception. To quote one example, two years ago, the provincial government decided to remove illegal barriers erected on streets across Karachi. These barriers were placed on the edges of various localities on the pretext of security.
However, they were also ethnically and politically divided areas e.g. a locality dominated by the MQM could not be accessed by commuters unless they used a main route closely monitored by the party men.
The Sindh government decided to have these unauthorised barriers removed, as they were marginalising PPP supporters living in goths. MQM staunchly opposed the move. Home Minister Zulfiqar Mirza breathed hellfire and said the barriers would be removed at all costs. The coalition was under threat until the old peacemaker, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, stepped in to settle the matter and the barriers are still in place.
MQM wants the government to act against ANP activists, claiming they are responsible for killing its party men and committing other crimes such as land grabbing and extortion in the city. The ANP wants action against MQM activists accusing them of similar crimes. In fact, MQM also wants PPP to order an operation in Lyari, the latter’s stronghold.
The PPP is trying its best to keep its marriage of necessity with MQM intact. At the same time, it does not want to annoy ANP. So this leaves the Karachi residents with a mess.
The law enforcement agencies’ hands are tied. They cannot rid the city of the people involved in target killings, land grabbing and extortion. The people they arrest are eventually released after pressure from political parties.
The PPP resorts to small tricks to satisfy one coalition partner and then takes a U-turn to pacify the other. This cycle continues and the men who dominate the city with the power of their guns are never brought to justice.
