Accordining to reports, Pakistan People's Party Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari has voiced dispaproval of statement given by Sindh's Senior Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza regarding Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during a recent meeting in Karachi. Mirza has reportedly assured the President that he respected the Interior Minister and that his statement has been twisted.
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| Rangers personnel arrest suspects during a search operation, on Wednesday. |
Karachi has turned fast from economic capital into murder capital of
Pakistan and from mother of the poor to murderer of the poor. To put the
argument in perspective, let us first see the case of Ciudad Juárez, a
city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez is known as murder
capital of the world due to the magnitude of violence and killings. It
has remained gripped in drug cartel war over the years with some 1,600
murders in 2008, 2,600 in 2009 and 3,100 in 2010. The city has a
population of over 1.5 million people. By 2009, annual murder rate had
reached 133 per 100,000 inhabitants. More than 50,000 troops and federal
police are actively involved in the fight against the cartels. Yet,
there is not let up in transgression by drug mafia in Mexico at large,
and Juárez in particular.
Karachi has tremendous economic potential. There are over 15,000
industries in five industrial zones of the city. The city generates the
lion’s share of 67% for the national exchequer and 35% of the GDP. While
ESP issues in Karachi breeds numerous ills. Processional religiosity
and agitational politics too stops the wheel of life in the
cosmopolitan. Deteriorating the law and order situation stops the wheels
of industry and disturbs the trading circles, incurring loss of Rupees 3
to 5 billion per day and it takes 4 to 7 days for normalizing the
situation in the aftermath of routine violence. During the current
violence, Karachi has suffered an estimated economic loss of Rupees 60
billion affecting economic activities across the country.
Karachi is weathering a fresh wave of urban terrorism, hosts of civil
offences and street crimes. About 1,500 street crime incidents take
place daily. Cold-blooded murders are not speciality of Karachi alone.
However, disregard to the holy month of Ramadan, as are being witnessed
now, have never been the history of the cosmopolitan. Like Karachi (and
even Juárez) crimes and murders do take place in other major
metropolitans and cosmopolitans of the world too e.g. Rio de Janeiro,
Sao Paulo, New York and Mumbai. A report recently issued by Karachi
Chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) noted that a
total of 1,138 people were killed in the city during the first six
months of the current year and 490 of them fell prey to targeted
killings on political, sectarian and ethnic grounds. It is of note that
these are the reported-cum-recorded figures. Like other databases in
Pakistan, the crime data is also flawed an incomplete. Actually,
innumerable innocent Karachiites have breathed their last while fasting
during the month of Ramadan. It is a different kind of urban warfare,
with no parallel in the world and has surpassed even Juárez in
complexities.
Unlike Juárez, which is a hub of drug crimes in the world, Karachi has
numerous causes of crime and conflict. Some consider it to be purely
political terrorism, wherein the political parties have nurtured their
own militant wings, active in pursing supreme political causes. The
others hint at gangs formed by drug, land and crime mafia to be
perpetrating the heinous crimes. Yet others point finger towards foreign
hand. Actually, it is a complex mix of all these – a product of
intertwining and criss-crossing politico-economic and criminal interests
of various stakeholders to include numerous gangs, groups, parties,
organization, tycoon and entrepreneurs. Key perpetrators are political
militias, terrorist organizations, religious extremists, criminal gangs,
land mafia, drug cartels and corporate tycoons involved in illegal
business. The fifth hand is always there in form of fifth columnists
financed, funded and fomented by the foreign espionage agencies. At any
rate, the victims are, more often than not, the poor people of Pakistan,
who are either permanent residents of Karachi or dwelling therein to
earn living for their beloved ones living elsewhere in the country.
Political cheerleaders acknowledge no involvement in killing and
terrorism, but often claim the dead to be their workers. Yet the killing
sprees in the past have always abated after “peace deals” between the
political parties. Political rejoinders are often considered to be
climax of conflict resolution round the world. Nonetheless, Karachi is
different in this regards too. Political moorings do allow pauses
between the tides of violence but never an end to the menace. This
denotes that the polity not only projects solution but is also a part of
the problem. Imperatives of security in Karachi are reconciliation,
digitization, deweaponization, and de-politicization of police and
cosmopolitanization of security system.
Firstly, the intermission in existing wave of violence is important.
This needs reconciliation process involving all stakeholders. These
include political parties, civil society, ethnic communities, media,
eminent organization representing the corporate bodies and security
agencies. Without accord between the stakeholders, the remaining process
would not be more than a wishful exercise on a rough paper. It also
looks relevant to suggest that Karachi be handed over to Pakistan
Rangers (Sindh) till such time that the situation normalizes. If
necessary, the government should not hesitate to employ military forces
in the most trouble zones for a limited time. This exercise must
conclude at making a permanent conciliatory commission made up of all
stakeholders.
Secondly, even while it may be difficult to digitize the entire country,
a comprehensive central database must be prepared for Karachi, which
should be available with all security agencies. Key figures should be
available even online. The database should have the particulars of each
citizen and minutiae of each house, key features and assets. Criminal
records of individuals and groups should be an essential part of the
database. The data should be prepared by NADRA under the auspices of
Ministry of Interior, wherein each resident of Karachi, whether
permanent or temporary must be obliged to register. This must also
include the record of mobile SIMs used by each individual. Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority has the capacity to do the job, if backed up
by political will. Thirdly, weapons, whether legal or illegal, are made
to kill. Hence, it is imperative to cleanse the city of weapons. Yet,
legal weapons are lesser evil and are authorized under the law. On the
way of de-weaponizaiton, it is considered that not only the illegal
weapons be cleansed from Karachi but measures must also be taken to
control the flow of legal weapons under the shadow of the powerful ones.
All arms licenses should be digitized, as has already been announced by
the Federal Government besides linking license and weapon number with
NIC of the license-holder so as to guard against possession of more than
one weapon on one license. For violation beyond the prescribed date,
heavy penalties need to be legislated. Weapons buy-back programme can
help minimize the number of illegal weapons to some extent. All said,
de-weaponization can come true only through a sustained process rather
than an event.
Fourthly, cosmpolitinic security and policing system needs to be
introduced in Karachi. At the present, 105 out of total 440 police
stations of Sindh are located in Karachi (32 in West Zone, 36 in East
Zone, 31 in South Zone and 6 in other areas) with an authorized strength
of 28,000 personnel out of total 70,133 policemen in the province.
Against the UN recommended norm of 222 policemen per 100,000 people i.e.
one cop per 450 people, Pakistan has average police strength of 186 per
100,000 citizens i.e. one cop per 537 citizens; still a healthy figure.
The strength of police in Karachi is less than the national average
too. On average, one policeman is employed for 715 citizens. This
denotes that the strength of police needs to be at least doubled.
Besides, the number of police stations i.e. 105 is not sufficient to
police a city spread over 3,527 square kilometers. On the average, each
police station is to take care of 33 square kilometers, something
grossly opposite to the international cosmopolitanic models. Even with
the same strength of police personnel, the number of police stations can
be enhanced and equipped better. A police station should not be
required to take care of more than 16 square kilometers i.e. 2
kilometers on either side, if centrally located. Each police station
must have the database of people, assets and crime in the assigned area.
With better mobility and communication means and linkage with the people
and communities, police should be held accountable for each crime
taking place in the area of jurisdiction. Police should have relative
independence to act and react without need to look towards political
bosses. All other departments should be linked with police for the
purpose of security. Besides, Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) should be
dovetailed with the system of security led by the cosmopolitan police.
At least one company of Rangers must be permanently deployed in each of
the 18 towns of Karachi to act in collusion with police.
In sum, the security edifice of Karachi lies in a political solution
dovetailed with apolitical system of security based on total
digitization, complete de-weaponizaiton, de-politicization of security
forces especially police, and above all, regular reconciliation by
permanent conciliatory commission made up of all stakeholders. Let the
people at the helm of affairs rest assured that peace in Karachi denotes
peace in Pakistan. If it remains peaceful, all would remain at peace.
Alternatively, it would keep serving as murder capital of Pakistan and
thus, the peace dream of every Pakistani would simply peter out.
By Ehsan Mehmood Khan: The writer is Masters in Strategic Security Studies from NDU, Washington DC and is pursing M Phil at NDU, Islamabad.
(Pakistan Observer)
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