A Critique of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance

by Naseer Memon

The new local government ordinance in Sindh has become a burning issue.

Public reaction to this law has been explosive, to say the least. Ruling allies demonstrated indecent haste in promulgating the ordinance and then the bill itself.

Certain sections of the law make it abundantly clear that it will widen the pervasive ethnic crevasse in Sindh.

Clause 8 of Chapter two “Creation of Metropolitan Corporation” is an evidence of duality of the system. It reads “Government shall, by notification in the official gazette, declare and constitute single district Metropolitan Corporation at Divisional Headquarters comprising the areas of the districts of Karachi, Hyderabad, Larkana, Sukkur and Mirpurkhas”. The clause is followed by an important note that reads “Explanation: It is clarified that for the purpose of this Ordinance, the District of Karachi shall comprise all the five districts of Karachi existing immediately before the commencement of this Ordinance.”

This is intriguing that Karachi has been treated differently by merging its five districts into one district. One wonders why Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has 18 towns as sub units and why not five districts as its sub units whereas these districts do exist for revenue purpose. This distortion is a revival of the Musharraf era configuration of Karachi, thereby restoring carefully carved out 18 towns to benefit the MQM, a key ally of the government. A district-based arrangement does not suit the MQM in Karachi and the PPP had to succumb to the pressure of its ally in Karachi.

First schedule of the Ordinance provides a list of 22 decentralised offices. Item No. 22 reads, “Anti-Encroachment and Law and Order in respect of section 109, 133, 143, 144, 145, Cr.P.C and Section 30-A to 34-B of Police Act 1861 in respect of the properties and assets of the local government.” These are magisterial powers which should not be accorded to mayors. As the mayors will have political loyalties, there is a risk that these powers can be abused to subdue political opponents.

Clause five of Chapter three reads, “The Councils will be at liberty to commence any activity and office through its own finances which is not decentralized.” This is a blanket power to Councils and bestowing them with limitless liberty to establish any department can have serious political repercussions. Putting a condition of “own finances” implicitly benefits Metropolitan Corporation of Karachi or may be Hyderabad to some extent because other Metropolitan Corporations can hardly generate enough resources to meet their expenses. Since Karachi owns airports, sea ports, fish harbors, private sector establishments, service sector entities like banks, insurance companies, shipping companies and large scale manufacturing and corporate outfits, therefore the Metropolitan has an edge in generating “own finances”.

Even a minuscule amount of tax can generate millions, enabling the Council to set up any department on its sweet will.

The potential of resource generation can be assessed from the data of Provincial Excise Duty and Taxes income of various districts of Sindh. According to the annual report of Sindh Bureau of Statistics 2008, Karachi generated over 9 million rupees compared to 0.34 million by Hyderabad, 0.14 million by Sukkur, 0.076 million by Larkana and 0.089 million by Mirpurkhas. This puts Karachi at an edge over the other metropolitans to expand its perimeter of authority.

Chapter 7 of the law delineates the role of Provincial Finance Commission (PFC). The Commission will recommend the Chief Minister a formula for distribution of resources. Clause 126(2) stipulates that the recommendations shall be based on the principles of fiscal need, fiscal capacity, fiscal effort and performance.

Tax collection data of these Metropolitan Corporations clearly indicates that the four indicators for grant allocation will mainly benefit Karachi followed by Hyderabad. The fiscal need is a vague term and can be interpreted in many ways.

For example someone can consider population as a determinant of “need” thus the two Metropolitan Corporation can claim lion’s share. It is strange that poverty and human development indicators are not made basis for recommending grants. Interestingly, poverty carries weightage in National Finance award but the same is missing in the PFC award.

Under the list of decentralised departments, three functions are exclusively devolved to only Metropolitan Corporation i.e. (iii) Inland fisheries (vii) primary education and (xv) the KMC and the KDA land. In absence of clear definition of term “Inland fisheries” there is an apprehension that shallow water coastal fisheries may also be subsumed in this function.

This will be tantamount to extending authority of the Mayor of Karachi on fish harbors, jetties of local fishing community and subsistence fisheries practiced by small fishermen in creeks and islands in the vicinity of Karachi.

Fishermen Cooperative Society is already handed over to the mayor as it comes under the cooperatives which is a decentralised department under this law. Similarly, handing over Primary Education to only Metropolitan Corporation and not to District Governments will introduce dual management of the function. This function was recently devolved from the federal to provincial government and there is no point in decentralising it further down without adequate controls. The KDA and the KMC land is an exclusive domain of Karachi Metropolitan as no other metropolitan has any department with this name.

Another more obvious duality is introduction of Police Order 2002 only in Karachi. Under this arrangement, Karachi has been divided in 20 divisions headed by 15 SPs and 5 SSPs. The rest of Sindh has the Police Order of 1861 to deal with.

The Unabated Killings in Karachi and the Impotence of the Rulers

Living amongst dying, but for how long?

It was couple of days ago when a contingent of law enforcement agencies raided Ashraful Madaris in Gulistane Juhar; located 7 kilometres from Ahsan-ul-Uloom and just a kilometre from the main runway of Karachi’s international airport.

Some suggest that the security personnel on an inside tip came looking for ‘high value militant’ from Swat visiting Maulana Hakim Akhtar. Ones on guard duty, caught by surprise were quickly overpowered. However in the ensuing commotion and exchange of fire the wanted militant slipped away which typically happens with our security personnel. It should not then be surprising that the Americans did not consider it wise to inform their Pakistani counterparts while attacking Osama’s residence. He would have slipped away too!

One theory regarding the collapsing law and order situation in Karachi suggests that Nov 15′s bomb attack over Rangers was sequel to the Nov 13 night’s raid at Ashraful Madaris, while subsequent murders were the result of the bomb-blast.

Mullah Fazlullah faction claiming responsibility for bomb-attack and efficiency displayed in killings in Gulshan added fuel to such rumours. Some insist that the ongoing violence is a result of numerous sectarian deaths from Quetta to Gilgit and finally the militant Shia groups have become fed-up and are going for retribution. Partly that may also be the cause of mayhem over Karachi streets and then there are those who suggest that evil acts were being committed by our shadowy agencies.

Karachi is vital to Pakistan’s economy. Even in worst of circumstances it contributes more then 40 per cent of the nation’s GDP, 73 per cent of income tax and 64 per cent of sales tax revenues. Critical imports and most of the exports, major manufacturing, banking, insurance and stock markets have little option to move elsewhere. Yet the share of Karachi’s young in the armed forces, civil bureaucracy, and even national sports teams continue to decline. Ethnic and sectarian diversity that was once considered to be Karachi’s splendour may have finally become its curse.

Millions of daily wage workers end-up loosing their meagre incomes for every day lost to violence or shutdowns. FBR claims average revenue loss in excess of Rs. 13 billion of each day closure of trade and industry in Karachi.

Whatever the cause more than hundred people lost their lives in Karachi during last one week. Yet Interior Minister, IGP Sindh and the gullible CCPO would want us to believe that most of these murders were due to some personal enmity.

During last four years PPP has either been in coalition with its past political rivals or has maintained good working relationship except may be for Jamaat Islami! Still as per lists maintained at the Peoples Secretariat, 426 PPP activists were killed in Karachi during past four years. MQM has a long list of its own and so does the ANP, Tehrik Jafria, Sunni Tehrik, Ahl-e-Sunnat wal-Jamaat, MQM–Haqiqi, Sipah-e-Sahaba and not to forget the Police and the Rangers!

Trade Unionists claim that the banned religious groups getting assembled under TTP banner were ruthlessly targeting workers of ANP for last few months, trying to take-over most of its ward-offices in Karachi’s Pushtun neighbourhoods. Some even claim that ANP was on its way out!

According to the news coming out of Lyari, pictures of Mr. Zaradari have started to go up again after withdrawal of cases against several members of Peoples Amn Committee. Sunni Tehrik is a known ally of Amn Committee as well as MQM-Haqiqi, while their equally deadly rivals Sippahe Suhabah and LeT were known to be close to Taliban.

While some of the PPP coalition partners have heartlessly milked Karachi for last 20 years, lately it has shown little mercy itself! Karachi suffers at the hands of extremists, land-grabbers, builders, every conceivable mafia, lack of governance and raining poverty. Every inch of city’s skyline has been draped with hoardings and hoarders, and every street converted into commercial zone with no floor height restriction for builders.

Still our television screens glitter with images of catwalk in Islamabad, cine awards in Mumbai, laptops being doled-out by Shahbaz Sharif, flowerbeds along boulevards in Lahore, records after records being set Guinness Book in Punjab with a ticker running underneath reporting Chief Minister Sindh’s flying visit to city’s business district in South. With 49 ministers in his cabinet CM finds no room for Home Minister after removal of Zulfiqar Mirza and Manzoor Wassan. But then he may have Tapidars and Shaikhs to run the province.

All night Saturday Khyaban-e-Hafiz kept buzzing with Police hooters chasing VIPs going for Khurshid Shah’s daughter’s wedding while Districts East, West and Malir wept for the dead. Security at sensitive public and military installations went to high-alert. However DIG Police (East) frankly announced that he did not have enough cops to station at every street or market, suggesting we continue to fend ourselves!

Sunday morning another funeral procession came out of Edhi Home, inviting more violence and 11 more deaths. Monday’s death toll exceeded Sunday’s number! A far cry from Waziristan or Afghan-istan what possible expectation could Taliban have from Karachi except extortion or destabilisation of this country? Struck with stoic-fatalism many members of civil society grumble they may not survive this wave of militancy and violence.

However many share a dying wish, “How could a city that has no factory to manufacture arms or ammunitions never runs-out of guns and bullets? City with highest national literacy rate never runs out of target-killers? How is it possible for every law enforcement officer to fail in checking broad daylight murders, snatchings, extortion, kidnappings, influx of Afghan and other illegal aliens! And finally why couldn’t FBR allow just a weeks revenue to be invested in for policing and city’s infrastructure?

Fahim Zaman may be reached at fahimzkhan@gmail.com

The Wali Khan Baber case is another example how clumsily the authorities handle the killings in Karachi.

Wali Khan Baber, a correspondent of a television channel, the Geo News, was shot dead on January 13, 2011 when he was going to home after performing his duty. He was prominent on the reporting of target killings, land grabbing and drug related issues. The case has been pending in the Anti Terrorist Court (ATC) for one and half years during which time six witnesses were murdered by unknown persons. The police claim in their reports that the assassins were from a political party of the ruling alliance. Among the murdered persons were two police officials and the younger brother of a police officer who was the inquiry officer in the case. The other three persons killed were eye witnesses of the murder.

This case highlights the failure of the criminal justice system, weak prosecution, and impunity to perpetrators, acts of coercion and intimidation and the political influence from the ruling parties to undermine the functioning of the rule of law. In the case of a prominent journalist, Baber, who was probing the causes of the fragile situation of the law and order situation and the killing of large numbers of innocent people in the city by the ruling party, MQM, in its efforts to retain its control over the extortion and land grabbing, has compelled the government to change its provincial interior minister and transfers of high ranking police officials. The party was successful in its black mailing otherwise the ruling alliance would have to lost its power.

Due to the absence of witness protection the perpetrators found it easy to eliminate the witnesses so that the killers can enjoy the lacuna of the law of the land. During the period of one and half years while the case was being heard in court, the lawyers, prosecutors, police officials and even the witnesses informed the government that they needed protection from the killers as their group is so powerful that they were in serious peril. However, the governments of the province and federation including the ministers, particularly the federal interior minister, promised several time to provide foolproof security. All these promises proved to be false and the six witnesses to the case mentioned above were killed during the court proceedings. Even the police officials were not spared.

The joint investigative team for the investigation of the murder of the journalist discovered the mastermind who designed and carried out the plan but government refused to arrest him. The main accused person, Liaquat, was a grade 17 officer in the local government and was the alleged in charge of the militant group of one of the ruling parties, the MQM. The total number of persons involved in the criminal gang is 17 but to-date only five have been arrested.

Now the final remaining eye witness was murdered on November 12, just two days ago before he was able to give his statement before the court. Mr. Haider Ali, the eye witness had also identified four out of the five murderers accused before the court. Some five months ago, Ali was shifted from his home to another place, the Soldier Bazar, because of the continuous attacks on his house and threatening calls from the killers. Ali voluntarily offered his evidence as he was there on the spot when Baber was assassinated during the traffic jam by the men riding on motor bikes and in one car. The killers were following him and when he shifted to other locality, 20 kilometers away from his original place. The place he was shifted to was very crowded. The killers knocked on his door and handed over him a packet of sweets then fired two bullets which hit him in the forehead and the eye.

Once again the government failed to follow the killers as it had done previously in the killings of five other witnesses.

When the killings of the witnesses started the provincial interior minister, Dr, Zulfiqar Mirza, and high police officials found that one ruling party is involved. Instead of following the findings of the officials Zardari ordered the chief minister to relinquish Dr. Mirza from the post of provincial interior minister so as to appease the ruling allied party. This was done at the cost of the lives of the witnesses.  This process was not stopped and it took the job of the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO),  Saud Mirza, who was transferred to Islamabad as the allied party complained that he has identified the real killers who were militants from the allied party.

It is interesting to note that the alleged killers of the witnesses were operating freely to eliminate the witnesses and they had never felt any resistance from the government to their operations. After the killing of Baber, the whole media and journalists went on protest and demanded the arrests of the killers. They even named the political party whose militants were involved. However the killers were so well organised that they did not heed the protest and possible consequences and within 15 days of the incident, on January 29, 2011 Rajab Ali Bengali, an eye witness and police informer, was found dead. His body was found in a gunny bag. The police found a slip of paper in the pocket of his clothing on which the name of a police Head Constable, Arshad Kundi, was written. The note said that Kundi would be next.

Just after two days of killing of Bengali, on January 31, Asif Rafiq was killed in a drive-by shooting by two men on a motor bike when he was going back to his home which was situated at police lines at Liaquatabad police station. He was linked to the case as he has identified the vehicle which was used by the killers of Baber. Rafiq was at the spot at the time of the murder and noted down its registration.

As promised in the note, Arshad Kundi was killed on March 19. He was shot dead in a drive-by attack by two men on a motor bike in the area of Sohrab Goth. He was working with Gulshan-Iqbal investigations police and he was on the team probing the case.

Naveed Tanoli was gunned downed on April 7, he was the younger brother of inspector Shafiq Tanoli, the station house officer (SHO) Liaquatabad, who was a member of the joint investigation team of the Baber murder case and rounded up five accused person involved in the case. His brother’s killing was the act of intimidation to stop him for further investigation.

The killers took a break for some months and then killed another policeman Faisal Tanoly on December 11; he was the gunman of SHO Shafiq Tanoli, again to intimate him and the police in general that the killers are not far behind them.

As the last eye witness, Haider Ali was killed on November 12 the government and MQM can relax now that their allied party and the killers are safe as there are no more witnesses and the court will release all the alleged killers for want of proof.

Unfortunately despite the fact that there are no more eye witnesses the matter is not closed and the killers have turned their attention towards the lawyers, the prosecution and other witnesses, who have already informed the court that they are receiving threats and are not receiving any protection from the government. They have stated firmly that they will not attend any future court proceedings.

The government of Pakistan frequently complains that the courts are releasing terrorists and other criminal elements but fail to realise that the reason for this is the almost complete absence of witness protection. In this case it is not the criminal elements that are behind the impending release of the accused but the failure of the same government that is complaining. It is a fact that judges have left the country for their safety after receiving threats to their lives and those of their families. These threats have been reported time and time again to the government but to no avail. There is no proper witness protection system as the government has failed to legislate in this area. The exodus of the legal fraternity is one of the outcomes of this failure.

If this matter had happened in Italy 50 years earlier it would have come as no surprise to anyone. The likening to a Mafioso conflict with the government is not that farfetched. The fact that the government has provided impunity for the killers can only mean their willing collusion.

Is Karachi Now a Lost Case?

Karachi has had a long history of volatility stemming from sectarian, ethnic and political strife. Political parties fighting each other for control have drawn the city into a spiral of violence in recent years, a trend which seems to be getting worse.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-132841-MQM-ANP-workers-among-eight-slain ]

1,700 people were killed in Karachi between January and August 2012. At least 1,345 of these murders were politically motivated – a dramatic increase on 2011.

The ongoing killings are multidirectional. Largely, the killings are of a political, ethnic or sectarian nature and then in some cases personal scores are settled.

According to police statistics, there were 60 sectarian killings between January and August 2012, with both Shias and Sunnis targeted. While sectarian killings are relatively small in number, they often receive more media attention as the targeted personalities are usually prominent.

The growing number of killings has caused widespread alarm, and life is cheap. A target killer fee ranges between 5,000 [US$53] and 500,000 [$5,282] rupees.

What are the origins of the violence?

Much of the violence can be traced back to the regime of military dictator Zia ul-Haq who radically transformed society.

Pakistan became a breeding ground for Islamist propaganda; many young people were recruited and trained to fight alongside the Mujahedin in Afghanistan. When they returned, they brought their weapons and fighting skills with them.

Drugs, especially heroin, became a major source of income for religious militias in Pakistan at this time.

Till the late 1970s, the society was quite enlightened, progressive and liberal. Even a single murder would have sensationalized the whole city in those times. But afterwards, the gun was made the symbol of power, and the political party considered most powerful was the one brandishing the most weapons.

Karachi’s university campuses became battlegrounds for open conflict between secular and Islamist students, the latter obtaining weapons en route to Afghanistan.

In the mid-1980s, this low-intensity conflict gave way to more deadly confrontations. After an operation by the security services to control criminal activity in an area where many Pashtoons lived, ethnic Pashtoon mobs financed by drug barons attacked the city’s Urdu-speaking majority (Muhajirs) in Karachi: Hundreds were killed in the December 1986 Aligarh massacre.

What is prompting the current killings?

There is a complex political divide in Karachi and the monetary stakes are very high.

Killing sprees tend to come in the wake of the arrest of hundreds of political and sectarian activists by the police, though such arrests rarely lead to convictions. There is only a 5 percent conviction rate in criminal cases, and as trials can last for years, 90 percent of jail inmates are currently under trial.

The current situation is tantamount to a breakdown in law and order.

We have to admit that this is a failure of the state. All the political parties should recognize this harsh reality if they feel any responsibility towards the nation.

Sectarian rifts, gang wars, drug peddling and land-grabbing flourish in a city in which political parties draw their support from specific ethnic groups.

Land grabbers and drug barons have taken shelter in political parties and become an integral part of the political culture.

Who are the main players?

MQM, currently the fourth largest party and a key ally of the PPP, came to prominence in 1984 as the sole representative of the Muhajirs. Financed by local industrialists, it became a formidable political force. In 1992 (on orders from then President Nawaz Sharif) and 1995 (on PM Benazir Bhutto’s orders) the army and the paramilitary Rangers tried to shut down the party. The government claimed on both occasions that MQM was trying to establish an autonomous state in Karachi. During these years the government sponsored the emergence of a splinter group – MQM Haqiqi – in an attempt to weaken and outflank MQM. Since that time, MQM has tried to portray itself as a more inclusive, national party, but there are ongoing tensions with other ethnic groups, mainly Pashtoons. Some suspect MQM of being responsible for some of the killings of MQM Haqiqi members.

MQM Haqiqi – Emerged in 1992 during the military operation against MQM. MQM Haqiqi captured MQM’s offices and tried to replace it, but failed to secure sufficient public support. It survives in some parts of the city and is thought to be behind some of the killings of MQM members. It has no MPs.

ANP is a secular party, although one of its key leaders and the current Railway Minister announced a bounty for killing the person who made the video about the Prophet, and key ally of the PPP government in Islamabad and the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It draws most of its support from ethnic Pashtoons, who are the second largest group in Karachi after the Muhajirs. The Aligarh massacre, committed by Pashtoons, is the reason for the ongoing enmity between the two communities and their respective parties.

Sunni Tehreek is a political group of the Barelvi Sunni Sufi order, without any seats in parliament. Most of its members are said to be former MQM Haqiqi activists and are thus at loggerheads with the MQM. Tehreek activists are often accused of extortion.

Peoples Aman Committee (PAC) is dominated by the Baloch ethnic group. It was formed in Lyari District, western Karachi. Unlike the rest of Karachi, which is mainly pro-MQM, Lyari District is dominated by the PPP. Allegedly PAC used to be a militant wing of the PPP, but the PPP withdrew its support in 2011. PAC was founded by local mobster Rehman Dakait and is now led by criminal kingpin Uzair Baloch. Allegedly it is involved in the weapons’ trade and runs illegal gambling dens. It has been involved in deadly clashes with the MQM over control of some suburbs. PAC was officially disbanded in March 2011, but continues to function.

PPP is the main ruling party which often has differences with MQM (its key ally). MQM blames PPP of using PAC as a proxy.

Katchi Rabita Committee (ERC) rivals PAC and is dominated by ethnic Katchis and has a strong following in Lyari. Some say ERC receives tacit support from MQM to counter the PAC, a claim MQM denies.

Sipahe Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) is a Sunni extremist group banned by the government for its alleged Al Qaeda ties. SSP supports the killing of Shiites whom it believes are infidels. It has no formal HQ.

Sipahe Mohammad is a banned militant Shiite youth group believed to have carried out revenge attacks against SSP.

Tehreek Taliban Pakistan is an extremist Islamist group which uses Karachi as a base for its Waziristan operations.

Faisal Qureshi Brother of Shahid Qureshi Murdered by MQM?

Faisal Qureshi brother of Dr Shahid Qureshi editor of The London Post (an online paper) was murdered inLahoreon Thursday October 6, 2011. The murderers have yet to be caught.

Dr Shahid Qureshi has been an open critic of MQM’s policies.

Faisal Qureshi reported receiving death threats fromKarachibased MQM after London Post published stories exposing MQM’s terrorist activities.  He reported his concerns to the Punjab Government authorities.

Why are the Sindhis So Parochial & Opposed to a Separate Province?

The Mohajir Rabita Council on July 14 said PPP leader Zulfikar Mirza and ANP leader Shahi Syed should leave Karachi in the next 48 hours.The MRC also rejected the apology offered by Mr Mirza for his remarks about the Urdu-speaking people and MQM chief Altaf Hussain. The MRC moreover said that it would continue its protests until Mirza and Syed leave the city.

Mirza does not appear to be a sane person and it is a pity that literally an insane person can be elected and then given an important position; it is a reflection on the people who elect such persons and then the rulers who give them important positions.

President Zardari is not playing politics; he is acting more like a mafia boss who makes astute chess moves outmaneuvering his opponents by every possible mean. He appears to have no principles and can go to any extent to remain in power.

Mirza cannot be issuing these statements without the blessing of President Zardari. If he is doing it without Zardari’s consent then he should be removed. And if he doing it at the behest of Zardari then it is a sad reflection on the presidency.

The federation cannot survive if the Sindhis remain so parochial and remain staunch enemies of the Urdu speaking. The tension between the Mohajirs and Sindhis in Sindh is more than what one experiences even between the Muslims and Hindus inIndia. This is inspite of the messages that are continuously exchanged amongst the politicians and despite repeated visits to nine zero by various leaders. The leaders lack sincerity and dislike the mohajirs even when making pro mohajir statements.

This was reflected the kind of language used by Mirza on July 13 while speaking to newsmen at the residence of Awami National Party leader Shahi Syed. In a fiery speech, Mirza confirmed that he had twice met MQM (Haqiqi) chief Afaq Ahmed and said that if Ahmed was a criminal then Altaf Hussain was an even bigger criminal.

“In my view, the real leader of the Mohajir nation is Afaq Ahmed who has been in prison for eight years and not a single case against him has been proved. In fact next to President Zardari he is the biggest political prisoner of the country.” Before being led away by Local Government Minister Agha Siraj Durrani, Mirza urged the people ofKarachiandHyderabadto rise and rid themselves of these ‘kam bakht’ (the damned ones).

About the MQM decision of quitting the government, he said the party had miscalculated the situation and played a wrong card on the advice of its friends.

“Now graffiti demanding a separate province has appeared in the city. No-one has the courage to divide Sindh. This was the province which provided you shelter when you came here hungry without clothes.” Mirza disclosed that at one meeting of the PPP-MQM core committee – which he said was a ‘bore committee’ – Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad had tried to convince him not to own up to meeting Afaq Ahmed. He said he had told Ibad that the MQM-H leader was his prisoner and he was well within his rights to meet him.

The question is why Sindh cannot be divided. If there is talk of forming new provinces in KP and Punjab why is Sindh so sacrosanct. If we all subscribe to democracy then should not we go with the wishes of the majority. If the Karachites want a separate province then let them have one. They are not leaving the federation and only demanding a separate province; incidentally, this is something that keeps happening inIndiaand there is hardly a turmoil there on this issue.

Many Militants Arrested by Police Working for the Intelligence Agencies

The government is combating militancy with state sponsored militancy
by Baseer Naweed

More than 120 persons have been killed in the latest series of clashes between ethnic groups within only five days and different areas of Karachi have become no-go zones. Most of the areas have been cordoned off by the militants for several days and the law enforcement agencies have become silent spectators. After many days of violence the government finally moved but instead of taking direct action transferred the responsibility for maintaining peace to the paramilitary forces. This has only made the situation worse as the paramilitaries have no knowledge of the local situations and the reasons behind the conflict in the first place.

There have been reports from different police stations in the conflict areas that many of the militants arrested with firearms were released after showing the identity cards of state intelligence agencies. Around 90 suspected militants were arrested but most of them were released with their arms through the intervention of the paramilitary forces which includes the Frontier Corps (FC). There are reports that the police stations of Pirabad, Mominabad and Manghapir have released holders of identity cards issued by the state intelligence agencies who were arrested on suspicion of target killings.

It is also reported that Taliban militants have taken over control of the different heights of the mountain around the affected areas and are using sophisticated weapons. The law enforcement agencies (LEA) are well aware of the presence of the Taliban militants but avoid taking action against them. The government as usual is engaged in political expediency by not taking action against its own allies in the government. The appeasement policies of the government towards its allies such as the MQM and ANP have given them ample time and opportunity to access heavy weapons and ammunition and train their cadres. The MQM, according to its previous record, wanted to strengthen its militant group so that no one can challenge its basic constituencies and put pressure on its voters. Whereas, the law enforcement agencies had always allied themselves with one particular ethnic group which has become a source of hatred against them.

Many affected areas are still without electricity, water and basic food items even after ostensible control by the government was regained. In some areas dead bodies remained unburied for three days until the authorities took control. During the armed clashes, according to press reports, the LEA officials were making money through providing its vehicles for evacuating people from the war torn areas to safer places. The population around the barren mountain, which is under the control of Taliban militants, has left the area and many houses unoccupied which allowed to be taken over by the militants.

A total situation of anarchy is prevailing in the largest industrial and commercial city of the country where the rule of law has been prohibited by the ruling alliance. The city is virtually under the control of armed groups. To tackle the situation, the provincial and federal governments are depending on the paramilitary organisations rather than improving its policing and investigation system. Further to its irrational actions the government has given police powers of arrest and investigation to the Pakistan Rangers and the Frontier Corps (FC) which is a backward step in the efforts to bring peace.

The citizens of Balochistan are already facing the brunt of the FC for abductions, disappearances, torture in private locations, illegal detention centers and extra judicial killings. After getting police powers in 2009 in the replacement of the army the FC has been very active in killing people, particularly activists and students. A new trend of killings was introduced by the FC officials in the cases of disappearances in which the victims are extrajudicially killed so that there is no trace or evidence of the fact that they have been keeping people incommunicado.

The case of Kharootabad is very much evident when two unarmed women and one man were killed by the officials of the FC on the pretext of an encounter with terrorists.

It is the same with the Pakistan Rangers who consider themselves above the law of the land. In recent days the world has seen how six officials of the Rangers killed an unarmed boy in a public park and claimed that the boy was killed in an encounter and that ammunition was also recovered from him.

Therefore, the government is following a policy of combating militancy with state sponsored militancy. The policy to maintain law, order and peace in the city through the brutal use of force will only strengthen the militancy and misuse of the law. The handing over of police powers of arrest and investigations to paramilitary forces will undermine the working of the justice system including the courts and will also provoke the people to take the law in to their own hands.

The most alarming situation was witnessed when the agents of a particular intelligence agency were released after showing their identity cards. The persons who were released after their preliminary inquiries told the media that they were surprised when officials of intelligent agencies and some Jihadis were released without any inquiries. For these persons to have been released so easily and promptly can only mean that it was done with the knowledge and acquiescence of the forces that matter in the politics of Pakistan.

The government must do its utmost to bring an end to the violence, religious, ethnic or otherwise and conduct an inquiry into the involvement of its intelligence agencies in the armed fighting. Immediately relief should be provided to the affected people regardless of their affiliations to ethnic or religious groups. Also, the government must, once and for all, recognise the existence of the armed Taliban groups, the locations of which it is fully aware and take immediate action against them.

 

Verbal Diarhea Among Politicians

The rcecent onslaught of criticism against the MQM has less to do with the image of the party as a semi terrorist organization and more to do with it representing the mahajirs.

MQM was formed because the mahajirs were discriminated against. And the constant criticism in the country, except where mahajirs live, is a reflection of this phenomenon. This is sad and needs to change and the change has to be led by the Punjabis.

The present exchange of harsh words between the PML-n and MQM is also strange because the PML has diverted the attention to itself when the issue was withdrawal of MQM from the coalition; the issue has gone in the background and instead the nation is hearing about wigs and politicians’ daughters having love affairs.

MQM is at least trying to go national; patriotic forces should help it in this endeavor.

Its past may not be clean and it may be responsible for lots of killings. But if one uses this kind of criterion then many other parties would be equally responsible: PPP and PML-n were involved in crushing the MQM in Karachi that resulted in thousands being killed and PPP was involved in killing the Balochis in the seventies and is again doing it.

And who should be held responsible for the innocents getting killed in the drone attacks? Musharraf left a long time ago.

Army Declines to Intervene to Control the Violence in Karachi

Karachi, a chaotic city of 18 million people on the shores of the Arabian Sea has never shrunk from violence.

But this year, Karachi has outdone even itself.

Drive-by shootings motivated by political and ethnic rivalries have reached new heights.

Marauding gangs are grabbing tracts of land to fatten their electoral rolls. Drug barons are carving out fiefs, and political parties are commonly described as having a finger in all of it. More than 1,350 people had been killed in Karachi in targeted political killings so far this year, more than the number killed in terrorist attacks in all of Pakistan. That tally has solidified Karachi’s grim distinction as Pakistan’s most deadly place, outside its actual war zones, where the army is embroiled in pushing back a Taliban insurgency. The Sindh Home Minister and the federal Interior Minister are watching all of this in their secure offices and from their bullet-proof outfits.

This may partly be the effect of the war, which has displaced many thousands of ethnic Pashtuns from the northern tribal areas and sent them to this southern port, that has inflamed Karachi’s always volatile ethnic balance.

For the most part, extremists who torment the rest of Pakistan with suicide bomb attacks exploit the turmoil here to hide, recruit and raise funds.

The attack on the police headquarters by a suicide bomber that killed dozens was the exception, the first attack by extremists against a government institution in the city. What was sad even after this attack was the fact that the Sindh Home Minister instead of handling relief work and trying to catch the culprits was immediately on all the TV channels and surprisingly giving them long interviews.

Far more common have been killing by gangs affiliated with ethnic-based political parties hunting for turf in a city undergoing seismic demographic change. Karachi has long been dominated by ethnic Mohajirs. Their party MQM has a long association with violence. In 1992, the army moved into Karachi to suppress it, accusing it of a four-year rampage of torture and murder. During what amounted to a two-year occupation by the army, “several thousand” people were killed, according to accounts at the time. The latest challenge to the M.Q.M.’s hold is the influx of Pashtuns who have fled the war to seek work and shelter in Karachi’s slums.

Though the Pashtuns number some five million here now, they remain politically underrepresented, and the frustrations of the newcomers have increasingly been channeled into violent retribution by the Awami National Party.

The two sides have set their gangs on each other.

In August, after a senior MQM member was shot to death at a funeral, more than 100 people were killed in a weeklong orgy of violence. The army, asked by some political parties to move in again and keep the peace, declined.

During the by-election last month to fill the provincial assembly seat left vacant by the murder, more than 30 people were killed. In that rampage, members of a self-styled people’s peace committee affiliated with the Peoples Party, which leads the national government and considers this province, Sindh, its base, stormed an outdoor market on motorcycles and shot 12 Mohajir shopkeepers, the police said.

Hours later, seven men of ethnic Baluch origin were killed, apparently in revenge for the deaths of the Mohajirs, said Zafar Baloch, a spokesman for the peace committee.

Amber Alibhai, the secretary general of Citizens for a Better Environment, said: “If our government is not going to wake up, I fear Karachi will have ethnic cleansing like Bosnia. There’s no one to stop it. Who’s going to stop it? The police? The army? They can’t.” The cost of Karachi’s violence hurts all of Pakistan. More liberal than the rest of the country in decorum and religious belief, Karachi is the economic engine of the nation, home to petrochemical plants, steel works, advertising agencies and high-tech start-ups.

The rich live in grand houses in gated communities paved with broad boulevards. The poor live in neighborhoods like Lyari, a slum with little sanitation, fleeting electricity and hardscrabble roads that sits under an expressway.

Other megacities in the developing world — like Shanghai and Mumbai — manage law and order through political leadership that is absent in Karachi. A scared, understaffed and in some cases complicit police force compounds the problem. That was the message of a new report by a parliamentary committee that said 603 police officers had been assassinated since 1996. This year, 33 officers have been killed, the report said.

Many of these senior police officers were targeted, the report said, as retribution for the military action against the M.Q.M. in 1992, a sign of the long memory of the M.Q.M. But it is the persistent lack of Pashtun representation in the city and provincial governments that underlies the troubles.

The Pashtuns are frustrated and the A.N.P. says, ‘We’ll fight back.” In rare candor for a Pakistani government document, his report said “ethnicity, sectarianism, perceived insecurity due to demographic changes, gang war between mafias and clash of interests among workers of political parties have been the real cause of violence in Karachi.”

Of 178 boroughs in the 18 towns of Karachi, only 4 are controlled by the Pashtuns. Of 168 seats in the provincial assembly of Sindh, where Karachi is located, the A.N.P., the party of the Pashtuns, has just 2. Based on Karachi’s demographics, Pashtuns “could have up to 25 seats in the provincial legislature”.

That is political power way out of sync with demographic realities.” As part of the push and pull in the demographic war, the major political parties use armed thugs to commandeer public land so they can gerrymander election districts, said Mrs. Alibhai of the citizens’ group.

One of her group’s workers was killed last year trying to protect a park. “Land grabbing is used by political parties to increase their electoral mandate and enhance their financial position,” she said.

A recent former M.Q.M. mayor of Karachi, Syed Mustafa Kamal, denied that his party, which has long been favored by Washington for its secular outlook, was involved in the killing of Pashtuns. Mr. Kamal, who as mayor from 2005 until this year is credited with extending running water to several Pashtun neighborhoods, said Karachi was the rightful home of the Mohajirs.

The Pashtun, he said, harbor the Taliban and foment terrorist attacks. “We are the victims,” he insisted. The gruesome clash between the Mohajirs and the Pashtuns has spread recently to the stalls in Gulshen Town, a Mohajir-dominated area, where people sip tea and chat. There, Pashtun waiters who deliver hunks of roasted lamb to truck drivers at curbside tables, have become targets.

So Much for the Two-Nation Theory in Karachi

Religious, political and ethnic divisions have claimed hundreds of lives in Karachi but also influence the chances of survival for the injured.
 
 A doctor in the emergency ward of Civil Hospital Karachi, one of the city’s largest public hospitals, said: “After a terrorism incident, we are under intense pressure. Earlier, we had the activists of various political parties threatening us in the emergency department not to treat the patients of their rival groups. They use all sorts of delay tactics, be it blocking the entrance to pounding on the doors and abusing the staff. Now, we also get calls from the militants.”
 
“One ethnic-based party is so strong that it makes sure that the duty doctors are unable to carry out their work once the injured start arriving. We have doctors and other staff who are from that party within the premises. We have been told not to treat Pushtun injured, who are easy to identify due to their language and beards. We already face a shortage of staff, medicines and medical equipment… It’s just a mess here. But all professionalism and ethics aside, how can you expect me to save someone when my life is in danger?”
  
 Turf War
 The nub of the problem in Karachi is the ongoing turf war between the MQM and the Awami National Party (ANP) for control of the coastal city. Both parties draw support from rival ethnic groups; the MQM’s vote bank is among largely Urdu speakers who migrated to Karachi after partition from India in 1947, while the ANP mainly represents Pushtuns.
 
Habib ur Rehman Soomro, secretary-general of the Pakistan Medical Association, acknowledged that sectarianism was rife in the health services. “I will not deny this occurrence. I live in this city and I know how things work. Refusing and delaying treatment in cases of emergency, especially after incidents of ethnic violence and terrorism, is a crime but all this is happening… Now the situation is such that all public hospitals in the city have the offices of MQM, PPP and if it’s a Pashtun-dominated area, ANP.”
  
Soomro said that doctors were under constant threat. “Since the 1990s, there have been plenty of incidents of targeted killings of doctors killed on the basis of sect and ethnicity. Over 85 doctors have been murdered. First it was the Shia-Sunni issue, then the Pushtun-Mohajir issue, now it’s about sects. It’s just insane. Political affiliations need to be removed.”
 
A doctor at the JPMC said: “We have seen days where doctors were beaten by angry political activists as well as the family members of the victims after a bomb blast… This cycle of madness will not end.”

Zardari & Altaf Hosain’s Haj Applications Rejected

This year Saudi Arabia has rejected only two Hajj applications
 
The first application was of Pakistan’s President which was rejected to avoid confusion at Jamaraat (where you throw stones at Shaitan), as to which devil should be stoned.
 
The second application was of Altaf Hussain, because Islam does not permit telephonic Hajj.